Don't blame the network

It's all too easy for users to blame the infrastructure when their access to corporate servers is slow. This is such old hat that at a recent company meeting, the network professionals at apparel retailer Gap showed off their own tongue-in-cheek creation - a song called "Blame the darn network." In turn, the network folks often blame the application developers for building code that hogs bandwidth and makes everything else run like a dog.

"The complexity of applications is growing, and developers tend [not to] understand the nuances of application behavior in the real world. Now so many applications are mission-critical and IT operations are having to do more with fewer people - this is putting tremendous pressure on the [network operations center] guys," says Dave Danielson, CEO of performance management vendor Altaworks.

Too often, software is tested in the confines of the software lab but not in the real world, where multiple networks, servers and clients could introduce scenarios that the application might not have been built to overcome.

The problem also could be cultural, Danielson says. Developers strive to write software quickly and efficiently, whereas the operations folks ensure the infrastructure is well managed and performs well. If their motives are different, how can the two groups provide services that are useful to their constituents?

Danielson says organizations need to foster a closer understanding of the focus and challenges of both teams. What's more, he recommends testing the application before unleashing it to end users. This process helps the network specialists ensure there's enough bandwidth for the software, and helps developers identify and fix weak spots in the software that could create problems on the live network.

Gap, for example, uses Opnet's IT Guru and Application Characterization Environment (ACE) network modeling tools to test new software before it's rolled into production, says Jerry White, senior network engineer at Gap in San Francisco. IT Guru models the network, including routers, switches, protocols, servers and individual applications, while ACE provides detailed analysis of application packet traces and quick diagnosis of problems.

IT Guru is used as part of Gap's Network Application Deployability Assessment program for testing software on a model network before deployment. Software managers and the network staff who will conduct the tests meet and discuss the application's demographic, the number of users and their locations. "Once that has been determined we talk to the users to see what they want to get out of the study - is it response-time estimates? Mainly, it is 'Will network ops sign off on our application?'" White says.