Durham, N.C. - AT&T plans to push past the router all the way down to the server in its drive to take over more network management responsibilities for large enterprises.
The carrier later this year will add a server monitoring service to its Managed Network Solutions family of offerings. Until now, these offerings have focused largely on configuration and monitoring of routers and frame relay access devices.Under the new service, technicians at AT&T's Global Client Support Center here will be able to monitor corporate application servers across dozens or even hundreds of sites. AT&T will watch for excessive CPU utilization, disk space exhaustion, performance degradation and other problems.
Using tools such as Microsoft Corp.'s Systems Management Server and Novell, Inc.'s ManageWise, AT&T also will assume responsibility for distributing software electronically and tracking hardware and software inventories. The idea is to relieve corporate network administrators of product lifecycle and asset management headaches, and to help administrators assess the impact of application upgrades on WAN parameters, such as frame relay port speeds and circuit speeds.
AT&T officials conceded that the carrier has to take a number of steps before it can commercialize the server monitoring service, much less win contracts. The first of those steps will be taken today, when AT&T announces Version 6.0 of its Global Enterprise Management System centers here and in eight other locations around the world, GEMS 6.0 dramatically increases AT&T's reliance on tools from vendors of network operating systems, internetwork devices and network management software (see graphic). GEMS 6.0 represents a sharp departure from AT&T's legacy of using purely home-grown systems.
RELATED LINKS
ATT unveils new SLAs, managed firewall service
Network World Fusion, 1/27/98.
AT&T Solutions Global Client Support Center
Overview from AT&T.
GTE beefs up network security
A look at its managed firewall service. Network World, 12/10/97.
Shaping your outsourcing plan
A guide to outsourcing. Network World, 11/11/96.
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