Managing Business and Service Networks (Network and Systems Management) - Hardcover

Most everything in our experience requires management in some form or other: our gardens, our automobiles, our minds, our bodies, our love lives, our businesses, our forests, our countries, etc. Sometimes we don’t call it “management” per se. We seldom talk about managing our minds or automobiles. But if we think of management in terms of monitoring, maintaining, and cultivating with respect to some goal, then it makes sense. We certainly monitor an automobile, albeit unconsciously, to make sure that it doesn’t exhibit signs of trouble. And we certainly try to cultivate our minds. This book is about managing networks. That itself is not a new concept. We’ve been managing the networks that support our telephones for about 100 years, and we’ve been managing the networks that support our computers for about 20 years. What is new (and what motivated me to write this book) is the following: (i) the enormous advancements in networking technology as we transition th st from the 20 century to the 21 century, (ii) the increasing dependence of human activities on networking technology, and (iii) the commercialization of services that depend on networking technology (e.g., email and electronic commerce).

This book is about problems and methods in managing communication networks. The kinds of networks under consideration include enterprise networks (i.e. those that are typically owned and managed by businesses) and service networks (i.e. those that are owned by service providers but leased to businesses). Given the increasing dependence of human activities and business on networking, the topics of managing them and keeping them healthy are especially important. The book is divided into three parts. The first part describes the special characteristics of business and service networks, standards and common practices in managing networks, architectures of network management systems, and a close look at one popular network management system. The second part consists of three case studies: managing a micro city network, managing a service provider network, and managing an Internet2 GigaPoP network. The third part discusses future directions of network management. It looks at current research activities in network management, current practices in the field, the problem of combining research and practice, and finally discusses directions towards a comprehensive network management system.