Interactive scorecard and NetResults: SLA tools

Network World Fusion, 05/01/00

Every network is unique. This calculator lets you change the weights given to scores from our review to see which product might be best suited for your needs. Here's how it works: In each category, our reviewers rated the apps on a 1-10 basis. These ratings are then multiplied by the percentage weighting, and then added up to give an overall product score. Any score above 9 is considered "world class."

For each category below, assign the percentage weight you think is most appropriate. The percent-o-meter box on the right will keep track of your weightings to let you know when you've reached 100%. When you fill in the last box, hit your enter key, and you'll see how the apps rate (along with our final scores for comparison).

Percent-
o-meter

Category	Our weight	Your weight
Performance	30%	%
Administration	25%	%
Features	25%	%
Scalability	5%	%
Protocols	5%	%
Install	5%	%
Document.	5%	%

Results table

Below, you'll find the 1-10 score given to each app by our reviewers. To obtain the final score: Multiply each individual score by the weighting given that category, then add up all those resulting numbers.

QIP Enter-
prise Net ID Shadow IP
server Meta IP IP Address
Works Net-
Ware 5.1 Win 2000

Perf. 9 7 7 6 5 4 4

Admin. 7 7 7 8 7 7 4

Feat. 8 7 7 8 5 5 5

Scal. 9 7 7 5 5 5 5

Prot. 8 8 5 8 8 5 5

In-
stall 6 6 7 6 6 5 5

Doc. 8 8 8 8 8 5 5

Our total 8.00 7.05 6.95 6.90 5.85 5.20 4.45

YOUR TOTAL

NetResults

QIP Enterprise 5.0, SP2
Lucent (888) 683-2254
Web site
Cost: From $1.50 to $5 per node, minimum $10,000 for 2,000 nodes
Pros: Scales well; issues IP addresses quickly
Cons: Puts user classification workload and responsibility on each user's shoulders

Net ID 4.1.5
Nortel Networks Inc.
(800) 822-9638
Web site
Cost: Starts at $14,000
Pros: Highly fault-tolerant; migration path from static to dynamic addresses is well done
Cons: Should include Sybase or Oracle run-time; needs a better method of associating individual users with IP addresses

Shadow IPserver S50 and IPserver software
Network TeleSystems Inc., (408) 523-8100
Web site
Cost: From $16,550 to $45,000
Pros: Excellent Web-based user interface, good performance, fault-tolerant
Cons: Needs an LDAP or relational data store for querying and reporting

Meta IP 4.1 SP3
Check Point Software Technologies Inc.
(206) 674-3700
Web site
Cost: Standard edition is $445 for 100 nodes, Enterprise edition starts at $9,995 for 1,000 nodes
Pros: Easy-to-use Web-based interface; mapping of users to IP addresses via logon account information is a great time saver.
Cons: Not scalable; needs an interface to a relational database for querying and reporting

IP AddressWorks 2.0
Process Software Corp.
(800) 722-7770
Web site
Cost: From $2 to $5 per node
Pros: Simple, uncluttered user interface with drag-and-drop features
Cons: Not scalable; needs an interface to a relational database for querying and reporting

NetWare 5.1 (DNS/DHCP features)
Novell Inc.
(800) 453-1267
Web site
Cost: Starts at $1,345 for five users
Pros: DNS/DHCP services are a natural extension of NDS
Cons: Has some bugs; NetWare DNS/DHCP only available as part of the entire NetWare file server product

Windows 2000 Server (DNS/DHCP features)
Rating: 4.45
Microsoft Corp., (800) 426-9400
Web site
Cost: From $1,199 for 10 users
Pros: DNS/DHCP services are a natural extension of Active Directory
Cons: Immature, lacks query and reporting tools