NMS/OSS commercial software : short summary from NANOG replies - here it is

Wed Oct 30 20:03:37 UTC 2002

Sorry for my previous mail that was sent empty, due to a mouse clicking bug
;-)

So, at last, here is the summary of the answers, plus additional
information resulting from meetings
I had  with some vendors in the last days :

First of all, one contributor emphazises on the fact that focusing on
people and process is at least
as important as on the tools used for NMS.
Now the products :

- Infovista :
According to someone (Hi Mike,see you on rs-sp ;-)  ), the product  is
considered to be flexible
to build SLA reporting package, and very customizable to specific needs.

According to another one:
"Our NOC uses it and it just is not useful in any way, it usually is not
common sense,
the implementation is not straight- forward, it is awkward, and makes
shortcuts that shall not be made".
no comments ....

>From a meeting I had with Infovista recently, my personal feelings are a
mix of both opinions :
It is surely a powerful tool, very customizable and scalable, but quite
complex and heavy to deploy,
and it costs a fortune (multiple hundreds of K$, not to say more).

- Concord :
>From one contributor :"horrible in multi-vendor environments"
I have briefly met a Concord integrator, the product seems quite straight
and simple to
deploy, but very limited in terms of customization (all changes require C
developpment).

- Proviso : I have met the people from Quallaby today, the product looks
both simple to
install and powerful in terms flexibility and scalability. It might be a
good product for
 perfs monitoring and customer SLA reports,  but I had some rumors
of possible bankrupcy of Quallaby ... I need to check more about it.

- Netcool : seems to be quite a reference on the market, I only had good
but not detailed opinions on it.

- Cisco Works: not recommended by some people, or to be used for  Natkit,
which requires the
NSA (Network supported account) level of support from Cisco (which is not
cheap at all  ;-).

Quite an interesting doc recommended on NOC topics in general :
http://www.cisco.com/networkers/nw02/presos/pws/docs/PS-510.pdf

Other products that have been recommended by people on the list :
- Smarts : http://www.smarts.com/ . The product looks interesting, and it
was recommended
by several persons on the list.
Regarding my personal needs, I am not sure how well it is supported in
Europe, and especially in France ....

- LINMOR : www.linmor.com : a Canadian product.
>From the contributor :"They are the prefered vendor for both Cisco &
Micromuse when it comes to
performance management"
I might have the same problem that with Smarts in terms of finding here a
reseller and appropriate support ...

- SpiderMon, from Pathway Communication (a Canadian ISP reselling its in
house NM tool) :
It seems to be an all-in-1 product covering the whole FCAPS range. I can
give more details on the product
for person requesting it.

An interesting article comparing Spectrum, Patrol, Netcool, and Smarts :

http://www.networkcomputing.com/1316/1316f2.html

All comments welcomed.
________________________
Marc Rapoport
Architecture Dpt
Completel
tel : +33 1 72 92 25 38
fax: +33 6 09 76 56 79
m.rapoport at completel.fr
________________________