Simple Is Better with Bandwidth Monitoring and Traffic Shaping Equipment
June 7, 2010 — netequalizer
By Art Reisman
Editor’s note:Art Reisman is the CTO of APconnections. APconnections designs and manufactures the popular NetEqualizer bandwidth shaper.
For most IT administrators, bandwidth monitoring of some sort is an essential part of keeping track of, as well as justifying, network expenses. However, the question a typical CIO will want to know before approving any purchase is, “What is the return on investment for your equipment purchase?”. Putting a hard and fast number on bandwidth optimization equipment may seem straight forward. If you can quantify the cost of your bandwidth and project an approximate reduction in usage or increase in throughput, you can crunch the numbers. But, is that all you should consider when determining how much you should spend on a bandwidth optimization device?
The traditional way of looking at monitoring your Internet has two dimensions. First, the fixed cost of the monitoring tool used to identify traffic, and second, the labor associated with devising and implementing the remedy. In an ironic inverse correlation, we assert that your ROI will degrade with the complexity of the monitoring tool.
Obviously, the more detailed the reporting/shaping tool, the more expensive its initial price tag. Yet, the real kicker comes with part two. The more detailed data output generally leads to an increase in the time an administrator is likely to spend making adjustments and looking for optimal performance.
But, is it really fair to assume higher labor costs with more advanced monitoring and information?
Well, obviously it wouldn’t make sense to pay more for an advanced tool if there was no intention of doing anything with the detailed information it provides. But, typically, the more information an admin has about a network, the more inclined he or she might be to spend time making adjustments.
On a similar note, an oversight often made with labor costs is the belief that when the work needed to adjust the network comes to fruition, the associated adjustments can remain statically in place. However, in reality, network traffic changes constantly, and thus the tuning so meticulously performed on Monday may be obsolete by Friday.
Does this mean that the overall productivity of using a bandwidth tool is a loss? Not at all. Bandwidth monitoring and network adjusting can certainly result in a cost-effective solution. But, where is the tipping point? When does a monitoring solution create more costs than it saves?
A review of recent history reveals that technologies with a path similar to bandwidth monitoring have become commodities and shunned the overhead of most human intervention. For example, computer operators disappeared off the face of the earth with the invention of cheaper computing in the late 1980s. The function of a computer operator did not disappear completely, it just got automated and rolled into the computer itself. The point is, anytime the cost of a resource is falling, the attention and costs used to manage it should be revisited.
An effective compromise with many of our customers is that they are stepping down from expensive, complex reporting tools to a simpler approach. Instead of trying to determine every type of traffic on a network by type, time of day, etc., an admin can spot trouble by simply checking overall usage numbers once a week or so. With a basic bandwidth control solution in place (such as a NetEqualizer), the acute problems of a network locking up will go away, leaving what we would call only “chronic” problems, which may need to be addressed eventually, but do not require immediate action.
For example, with a simple reporting tool you can plot network usage by user. Such a report, although limited in detail, will often reveal a very distinct bell curve of usage behavior. Most users will be near the mean, and then there are perhaps one or two percent of users that will be well above the mean. You don’t need a fancy tool to see what they are doing. Abuse becomes obvious just looking at the usage (a simple report).
However, there is also the personal control factor, which often does not follow clear lines of ROI.
What we have experienced when proposing a more hands-off model to network management is that a customer’s comfort depends on their bias for needing to know, which is an unquantifiable personal preference. Even in a world where bandwidth is free, it is still human nature to want to know specifically what bandwidth is being used for, with detailed information regarding the type of traffic. There is nothing wrong with this desire, but we wonder how strong it might be if the savings obtained from using simpler monitoring tools were converted into, for example, a trip to Hawaii.
In our next article, we’ll put some real world numbers to the test for actual breakdowns, so stay tuned. In the mean time, here are some other articles on bandwidth monitoring that we recommend. And, don’t forget to take our poll.
Created by APconnections, the NetEqualizer is a plug-and-play bandwidth control and WAN/Internet optimization appliance that is flexible and scalable. When the network is congested, NetEqualizer’s unique “behavior shaping” technology dynamically and automatically gives priority to latency sensitive applications, such as VoIP and email. Click here for a full price list.
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Simple Is Better with Bandwidth Monitoring and Traffic Shaping Equipment
June 7, 2010 — netequalizerBy Art Reisman
Editor’s note: Art Reisman is the CTO of APconnections. APconnections designs and manufactures the popular NetEqualizer bandwidth shaper.
For most IT administrators, bandwidth monitoring of some sort is an essential part of keeping track of, as well as justifying, network expenses. However, the question a typical CIO will want to know before approving any purchase is, “What is the return on investment for your equipment purchase?”. Putting a hard and fast number on bandwidth optimization equipment may seem straight forward. If you can quantify the cost of your bandwidth and project an approximate reduction in usage or increase in throughput, you can crunch the numbers. But, is that all you should consider when determining how much you should spend on a bandwidth optimization device?
The traditional way of looking at monitoring your Internet has two dimensions. First, the fixed cost of the monitoring tool used to identify traffic, and second, the labor associated with devising and implementing the remedy. In an ironic inverse correlation, we assert that your ROI will degrade with the complexity of the monitoring tool.
Obviously, the more detailed the reporting/shaping tool, the more expensive its initial price tag. Yet, the real kicker comes with part two. The more detailed data output generally leads to an increase in the time an administrator is likely to spend making adjustments and looking for optimal performance.
But, is it really fair to assume higher labor costs with more advanced monitoring and information?
Well, obviously it wouldn’t make sense to pay more for an advanced tool if there was no intention of doing anything with the detailed information it provides. But, typically, the more information an admin has about a network, the more inclined he or she might be to spend time making adjustments.
On a similar note, an oversight often made with labor costs is the belief that when the work needed to adjust the network comes to fruition, the associated adjustments can remain statically in place. However, in reality, network traffic changes constantly, and thus the tuning so meticulously performed on Monday may be obsolete by Friday.
Does this mean that the overall productivity of using a bandwidth tool is a loss? Not at all. Bandwidth monitoring and network adjusting can certainly result in a cost-effective solution. But, where is the tipping point? When does a monitoring solution create more costs than it saves?
A review of recent history reveals that technologies with a path similar to bandwidth monitoring have become commodities and shunned the overhead of most human intervention. For example, computer operators disappeared off the face of the earth with the invention of cheaper computing in the late 1980s. The function of a computer operator did not disappear completely, it just got automated and rolled into the computer itself. The point is, anytime the cost of a resource is falling, the attention and costs used to manage it should be revisited.
An effective compromise with many of our customers is that they are stepping down from expensive, complex reporting tools to a simpler approach. Instead of trying to determine every type of traffic on a network by type, time of day, etc., an admin can spot trouble by simply checking overall usage numbers once a week or so. With a basic bandwidth control solution in place (such as a NetEqualizer), the acute problems of a network locking up will go away, leaving what we would call only “chronic” problems, which may need to be addressed eventually, but do not require immediate action.
For example, with a simple reporting tool you can plot network usage by user. Such a report, although limited in detail, will often reveal a very distinct bell curve of usage behavior. Most users will be near the mean, and then there are perhaps one or two percent of users that will be well above the mean. You don’t need a fancy tool to see what they are doing. Abuse becomes obvious just looking at the usage (a simple report).
However, there is also the personal control factor, which often does not follow clear lines of ROI.
What we have experienced when proposing a more hands-off model to network management is that a customer’s comfort depends on their bias for needing to know, which is an unquantifiable personal preference. Even in a world where bandwidth is free, it is still human nature to want to know specifically what bandwidth is being used for, with detailed information regarding the type of traffic. There is nothing wrong with this desire, but we wonder how strong it might be if the savings obtained from using simpler monitoring tools were converted into, for example, a trip to Hawaii.
In our next article, we’ll put some real world numbers to the test for actual breakdowns, so stay tuned. In the mean time, here are some other articles on bandwidth monitoring that we recommend. And, don’t forget to take our poll.
List of monitoring tools compiled by Stanford
ROI tool , determine how much a bandwidth control device can save.
Great article on choosing a bandwidth controller
Planetmy
Linux Tips
How to set up a monitor for free
Good enough is better a lesson from the Digital Camera Revolution
Created by APconnections, the NetEqualizer is a plug-and-play bandwidth control and WAN/Internet optimization appliance that is flexible and scalable. When the network is congested, NetEqualizer’s unique “behavior shaping” technology dynamically and automatically gives priority to latency sensitive applications, such as VoIP and email. Click here for a full price list.
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