Network Management

NextGen Networks offers a suite of subscription-based remote WAN, LAN, VLAN, VPN and optical network management services responding to the growing demand for flexible out-tasked management of network infrastructures. Delivered from NextGen’s Enterprise Operations Center (EOC), Nextgen 5000 Network Management services provide 24x7 proactive monitoring, end-to-end management of network problems and detailed performance reporting. The NUVO webCenter ™, our real-time customer interface and management dashboard, provides a centralized view into the health, performance and security of enterprise IT infrastructures.

We understand that a customer’s need for, and propensity to buy, out-tasked network management services varies according to several considerations including:

• IT’s role relative to business objectives
• IT spending constraints
• In-house skills and resource gaps
• Criticality of business applications supported by the network infrastructure
• Complexity and health of the network
  

NextGen Network Management services offer flexibility of choice to best align NextGen's out-tasked expertise with the customer's in-house capabilities and resources, while reducing the overall cost of IT operations.

NextGen Network Service Value Tiering

Drivers

Several factors are contributing to the appeal of network management out-tasking as an alternative to building, maintaining and operating an in-house solution:

Need for Skills and Expertise
An in-house 24x7 network management operation requires a minimum of seven or eight trained network analysts and support specialist working in teams around the clock. Finding, training and retaining this staff is difficult, as is the challenge of keeping up with continuous changes in technology.

Need for Process Automation and Discipline
Hiring qualified, trained and certified networking professionals is only part of the challenge. Their efficiency depends on the quality of the processes they follow to detect, respond to and resolve network problems.
The development, implementation and integration of advanced process automation and the internal process discipline required of the staff to respond rapidly, efficiently and consistently to network incidents is an insurmountable challenge for most in-house operations.

Need to Reduce IT Spending
Companies of all sizes are under pressure to reduce their levels of IT spending. IT budgets are more closely tied to business and financial objectives and consequently require ROI justification. Building in-house capabilities is a costly proposition requiring significant investment in technology, people, training, integration and ongoing operations. The financial benefits of effective network management also include reduced maintenance cost through dispatch reduction and improvement in overall health and performance of the network.

Cost of Poor Network Performance
The impact of network downtime is a multi-faceted issue not confined merely to financial cost. Customers should be reminded of its full impact, which includes:

• Productivity – number of employees affected, times the duration of downtime, times the burdened hourly rate.
• Revenue – direct loss, future loss, investment loss, billing loss.
• Financial Performance – revenue recognition, cash flow, payment guarantees, credit rating, stock price.
• Damaged Reputation – among customers, suppliers, financial markets, banks, business partners.
  

WHY NEXTGEN?

Full MSP Offering
When combined with NextGen’s security, server and IP telephony management services, our comprehensive suite of network management services provides a holistic view into the performance, health & security of the entire IT infrastructure. Full coverage means NextGen can be the single-point-of-contact for all out-tasked operations and can provide greater efficiencies & communications between IT departments resulting in reduced operations costs.

Service Integration
NextGen provides integration of OSS, service delivery and service management as well as integration of analysis and reporting across all components of a customer’s IT infrastructure including, WAN, LAN, security, servers and IP telephony.

Process Automation
NextGen’s Enterprise Operations Center (EOC) is staffed with network, systems and security experts who monitor and protect the customer’s IT infrastructure on a 24x7 basis. ISO 9002 processes and procedures ensure rapid response to, and resolution of network incidents.

NUVO webCenter ™
NextGen utilizes the NUVO webCenter ™, an interactive customer portal provides the customer with a real-time view of the health, performance and security of their network environment in a centralized management dashboard.

Rapid Deployment and Low Predictable Cost
Customers can acquire a fully operational out-tasked managed network solution that complements internal IT resources for an affordable and predictable monthly fee. The NextGen New Customer Introduction (NCI) process ensures the rapid implementation of the solution.

Operations Efficiency / Metrics of Excellence

• Automated problem detection and ticket generation – less than 2% of tickets are generated by customer phone calls.
• Mean Time to Action (MTTA) less than 2 minutes across all customers under management.
• Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) less than 60 minutes for all network & security events across all severity levels.
• 82% of problems resolved without dispatch.
• 41% reduction in average failures per device
  

Accelerated ROI

NextGen Metrics of Excellence contribute directly to an accelerated ROI through:

• Minimized impact of network incidents.
• Maximum availability of the IT infrastructure and e-business applications that depend on it.
• Capital cost avoidance and reduction in IT spending, including operational and physical maintenance

Monitoring	Hardware and circuit availability and failures	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
	Performance and threshold conditions				•	•	•	•	•
	Port-level availability monitoring							•	•
Performance	Daily performance reporting		•	•	•	•	•	•	•
	Network and device performance reporting		•	•	•	•	•	•	•
	Performance analysis & recommendation						•		•
Problem	Problem notification	•		•	•	•	•	•	•
	Problem escalation				•	•	•	•	•
	Technical problem management				•	•	•	•	•
Configuration	Device and circuit inventory				•	•	•	•	•
	Device configuration backup					•	•	•	•
	Switch port inventory and departmental billing reporting							•	•
Change	Change control					•	•	•	•
	Change design						•		•
	Switch port MACs							•	•

NEXTGEN IT OUT-TASKING SERVICES

NextGen delivers 24/7 remote management or IT operations out-tasking, of the following components of enterprise IT infrastructures:

Nextgen 5000 Network Management
Includes WAN, LAN, VPN, VLAN, wireless and optical networks.

Nextgen 6000 Security Management
Includes monitoring and performance of firewalls, network IDS, host IDS, VPN, security information management, and incident response.

Nextgen 7000 Server Management
Includes UNIX, Windows/Intel and Novell platforms.

Nextgen 8000 Application Management
Includes Cisco based IP telephony Call Managers, Unity Servers, and related infrastructure.

ABOUT NUVO webCenter ™

The NUVO webCenter ™ is a secure, real-time web interface that allows the customer to:

• Access comprehensive daily, weekly, monthly and historical performance reports
• Obtain inventory information including device and operating configurations*
• Request detailed problem ticket information related to Network failures and outages and obtain a variety of summary reports for all activities related to the resolution of Network problems
• Monitor key high-level parameters against service level targets to facilitate the management of all service providers and to ensure that the Network environment is operating within pre-established performance objectives
  

* The NUVO logo is a registered trademark of NUVO Network Management, Inc. All other registered trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. These service descriptions are based on service levels at the time of printing and are subject to change without notice. Service delivery may be limited by capabilities and configuration of the customer technology. © NUVO Network Management, Inc. 2004.