Networks Need Fire Marshals as Well as Firefighters

We received a flurry of passionate responses to our recent blogs about protocol analysis tools. It reminded us of a story Mike Pennacchi of Network Protocol Specialists told us at SHARKFEST.  If your house is burning, you welcome fire fighters bursting into your living room to pour 100 gallons of water a minute over your possessions. But if the local fire marshal asks for an appointment to inspect your house for fire code violations, you probably look for an excuse to be out of town. When the network is broken or has a serious performance problem, protocol analysts are the swashbuckling network firefighters who tap into a network and record packet traces by the gigabyte.

"Most of us here at SHARKFEST are firefighters because companies will spend money to fix problems, but not to avoid them," Pennacchi said. When it comes to firefighting, he knows whereof he speaks. As a volunteer fireman in Groveland, California in the late 1990's he didn't see much action because the town's very forceful fire marshal made sure buildings were safe. Based on your many responses there is a cadre of network firefighters strongly attached to their fire trucks and hoses.

However unpopular and unsexy the position might be, someone in your enterprise should be the network equivalent of the fire marshal. Otherwise, who will worry about the processes and tools needed to avoid a network or application performance emergency? We advocate ongoing performance management rather than emergency performance repair. Bring on the fire marshals!

Performance management requires a system of processes, procedures and reporting - and it requires a dedicated staff to keep the system in good working order. Furthermore, that staff needs proper tools and training - and that requires investment. The system must evolve as network and application infrastructure changes and it must adjust to shifts in infrastructure jurisdiction and ownership as the outsourcing/insourcing pendulum swings to and fro. Finally the system must stay current with changes in management and operations technology.

In an ideal world institutionalized performance management, should obviate the need for network analysts to fight fires. But we will never live in a perfect world, so those of you who love to fight fires will still have jobs - and your service will be invaluable for debugging during infrastructure changes and upgrades.

The question is who will design, build and staff the performance management system? This calls for the unglamorous capabilities of an accountant with a clipboard. How do we get the staid accountant to work with the petulant network analyst?

One final thought. Both the firefighters and the fire marshal work for the same fire department. Furthermore the most expert fire marshals were once firefighters. Are you tired of fighting fires? Are you ready to move to a "desk job"? How about putting on the newly minted badge of network fire marshal?

• Network Management
• Application Performance Management
• SHARKFEST
• Wireshark