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Forget about high reliability, availability and scalability. Continuous is the word you're looking for when it comes to e-commerce. Establishing expertise in five key areas will keep your network department prepared for the rigors of e-business.
Talk to Forbath He's online this week to answer your e-commerce questions 1. Network designNetwork engineers absolutely must know how to design a meshed frame-relay or ATM WAN core using a series of permanent virtual circuits. Furthermore, because of the number of router peering sessions such a design would entail, they must be well-versed in Internet Engineering Task Force plans for Multi-protocol Label Switching. MPLS addresses the scaling limitations of large meshed IP networks. What's more, network engineers must build redundancy into critical backbone and Internet access points. This seems an obvious point, yet network departments have not invested in this area to the same degree as their system counterparts. Be sure your network engineers can guarantee users and customers will be able to access the box even if a switch fails.
2. Advanced securityIf you're venturing into e-commerce, you can no longer define the corporate security strategy by firewalls that are intended to keep out the rabble and only allow in trusted, known users. You need to implement much more granular access control mechanisms based on specific information and application-usage requirements. A well-rounded network staff should be trained in public-key infrastructure and network- and data-storage-layer encryption technologies, as well as how to administer certificates of authority.
3. Testing and modelingNetwork engineers must be able to demonstrate to application and systems colleagues how network-unaware or poorly designed applications negatively impact network performance. They must know how to test and certify e-commerce applications before those applications go live, and how to use related tools. Familiarity with tools from companies such as Optimal Networks and Ganymede Software is a must.
4. Service-level managementYour networking group is probably expert in measuring speeds and feeds from traditional SNMP monitoring tools. Now you need to ratchet up those responsibilities. Your network staff has to manage applications from the business customer perspective using systems that measure service levels from the top down. Networking engineers must implement monitoring and reporting tools that use active and passive application testing approaches. It's worth establishing expertise in ResponseCenter from Response Networks, VitalSuite from Lucent's NetCare unit or NextPoint S3 from NextPoint Networks.
5. OutsourcingOf course, as your network department takes on more customer support, it must identify the operations that can be outsourced. Part and parcel of choosing an outsourcing firm is knowing how to put in place a well-defined service-level agreement (SLA). You should know how to get external services with strict SLAs that specify exact performance levels, times of availability, escalation procedures, change processes and financial penalties for not following any of these established service levels. Forbath is senior strategist at NerveWire in Boston.
The security of e-commerce transactions
Are you ready for E-business
The Multiprotocol Label Switching (mpls) Charter
Optimal Networks
Response Networks
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