Enterasys Puts Management in the Cloud – with a Social Twist

Social networking is truly the future of enterprise communications – and a cool new development from Enterasys marries network management and social networks in a very interesting way.

Enterasys yesterday announced that they've added a bridge, called isaac, between their NMS Network Management Suite - one of the best I've used, BTW - and a number of major social networks. The concept and execution are simple: enable authorized users of NMS at a given organization to access and, if allowed, modify information stored within NMS from within a public social network. It's easy - just authorize users from the NMS console, and they'll receive messages on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Chatter (part of salesforce.com), as desired. Enterasys has been using social media tools for its own internal IT operations, even beyond network management, for some time, and is obviously a true believer in the potential of what they refer to as "the convergence of cloud computing, social media, and mobility".

I am myself a huge fan of cloud-based network management. I'm just wrapping up a review of a few cloud-based WLAN management tools for Network World that will be out in July, and, not to give too much away, I'm really impressed with how well the technology and business models work in this application. So Enterasys' idea fits in well here - exporting capabilities via social networks makes a lot of sense for many users today. OK, I prefer to use a network management system via an HTML interface, but even I must admit that the convenience of the social-network approach is going to have broad appeal, especially with younger workers who have grown up with such on the Web.

I've had extensive conversations with the team that developed isaac, and my only real concern was with respect to security. Now, any network connection has its vulnerabilities and is subject to attack, but my issue here is that social networks represent a new and attractive vector for the dedicated hacker community. So while they would likely ignore a traditional HTTPS link to network management services, FaceBook and Twitter represent targets for all manner of mischief. And the last thing any of us want to see is one of our access points clad only in boxer shorts on Facebook, if you know what I mean. But I think Enterasys has done a great job of working through and countering the various potential issues here, including providing (very) temporary out-of-band access keys. So, if your security and social network policies are up to date, then I think you'll find this development interesting.

• Wireless / Mobile
• Network Management
• Chatter
• Enterasys
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• network management
• Network Management Suite
• NMS
• Salesforce.com
• security
• social media
• social networks
• Twitter