It's time for tactics

By Steven Taylor
Network World, 10/22/01

Enterprise managers are being asked to increase network uptime and simultaneously lower expenses. And they're being asked to do this with reduced staff and no additional resources.

The result of this seemingly illogical situation is that network planners need to shift from long-range strategic planning to shorter-term tactics to immediately demonstrate return on investment (ROI). In tight economic times, the ROI also has to be demonstrated with "hard" savings on expenditures as opposed to "soft" savings on more ethereal items such as increased productivity.

The good news is there are a number of changes that are easy to make and provide a fantastic ROI. For instance, if you're currently using frame relay services, there are some immediate measures you can take to optimize the bang you get for your buck.

If you're still running your network access at 56K bit/sec and need more throughput, check with your service provider to see whether you can upgrade to a T-1 link for a few bucks more. If you're running multiple 56K bit/sec links to a location, moving to T-1 may increase your throughput without costing any more than you're already paying.

In addition, consider sharing your frame relay connection for corporate and Internet access. Use a single physical connection with one of your permanent virtual circuits (PVC) connecting to the Internet. You'll eliminate a physical access link while sharing the total bandwidth between the corporate network and the Internet.

Also, even though the hardware for intelligent DSU/CSUs has been around for several years, the extent to which these devices are used is appalling. My service provider contacts point out that no more than 20% of current frame relay circuits use these devices. And while these DSU/CSUs are excellent for providing advanced and proactive maintenance, the real economic benefit they provide is in the ability to size your frame relay circuits accurately.

The sad truth is most frame relay circuits are sized - both for ports and PVCs - by a seat-of-the-pants estimate based on older fractional T-1 networks. You saved a lot of money, but without enhanced monitoring devices you have no way of knowing whether you have over-provisioned your network.

Based on my conversations with service providers, essentially all of them offer asymmetric speeds for PVCs, and, at the same time, almost nobody buys them. Why? Again, probably because of a combination of complacency and a lack of network-traffic analysis.

But this provides you with another opportunity to be a hero with some short-term analysis and investment. An analysis I recently performed found that, assuming just moderate performance tweaking, investing in enhanced DSU/CSU technology can provide a payback period of less than a year and over three years can provide an annualized ROI of 76%.

Just because you don't have a huge budget doesn't mean you should sit back and watch your network atrophy. Some carefully planned and economical tactical moves can provide tremendous advantages.