Concord extends Network Health model with remote access support

If you're an end user, have you ever been on the short end of a remote access call that, for whatever reason, failed to complete? If you're a network support person, have you ever been on the receiving end of a call from an irate remote access user whose incoming call didn't quite go through? I suspect for many readers the answer to both questions is "Yes".

A recent announcement from Concord Communications, the Network Health vendor, breaks some new ground by providing focused monitoring and reporting services for one of the weakest links in the remote access chain - server modems. Many of the most frequently encountered problems associated with centralized remote access modem pools - over-utilized hunt groups, excessive circuit errors, greater than expected retraining cycles and dangerous frame discards - are both tracked and trended by Network Health - Remote Access, the newest addition to Concord's very successful product line. Multivendor support - traditionally a key Network Health strength - has not been forgotten either.

Many of the major remote access product providers - 3Com, Ascend, Cisco and Shiva - are supported in the initial release. More specifically this means that product-specific support for the Total Enterprise Hub (3Com), the Max 4004 & TNT (Ascend), AS5200, AS5300 and 700 (Cisco) and LANRover, LANRover Plus and LANRover Access Switch (Shiva) will be available in the initial release. It is worth noting, however, that most of this product support will initially be targeted towards modem monitoring and tracking. In addition, however, Network Health -- Remote Access also supports monitoring services for other remote access chassis components such as the base CPU. This complementary support provides the means for remote access managers to more easily trouble shoot system-related problems and plan product capacity upgrades.

However, for those network staffs who experience remote access connect pain as both support people as well as end users, the ability to track and trend the health of the modem pool, particularly if a mixed set of vendors is involved, this announcement should come as welcome news. This should be especially true for network service providers where lost connections really do result in lost revenue.

While I have not done the math associated with a product payback period, I suspect that many users will find that the relatively low price point of this product ($6K plus a small incremental cost per managed element if you already a NetworkHealth user, roughly $20K if you are not) will lend itself well to a quick product payback cycle. This payback cycle will either by justified through the quantification of recovered revenue, reduced manual support time or most likely some combination of both.