FlyerIT Operations Management

Case Study—Accenture

Pivoting From Proactive to Preventative Management with Network Operations ManagementIn 2018, Accenture achieved a milestone in their ability to manage their complex global network. They chose NOM because they needed both broad and deep network management capabilities for 35k devices and 10k access points. NOM helped them move from an availability to a performance focus, and delivered these benefits:

+ Transformation to an always-on, always-available network

+ 30% reduction in MTTR + 40% reduction in incidents on Day 1 + 100% diagnostics of configuration compliance + Automated reporting

Micro Focus Network Operations Management (NOM) provides the industry’s most com-prehensive solution to manage today’s com-plex networks proactively and at the highest efficiency. It delivers significantly enhanced capabilities beyond even the integrated combi-nation of Network Node Manager i and Network Automation by supporting enhanced use-cases that work across operations and engineering. Your staff will work together more closely and experience the benefits of collaboration to min-imize mean time to resolution (MTTR), achieve security compliance, and gain agility and pro-ductivity with network orchestration.

Why Upgrade from Network Node Manager i and Network Automation?The role of network management in the enter-prise is evolving. Where teams once focused

simply on network health, new demands for agility and compliance now create additional requirements for network management teams. Network Operations Management responds to these requirements by including key new functionality including customizable executive dashboards, performance analysis in context of device configuration changes, and net-work orchestration delivered through Micro Focus Operations Orchestration. Additionally, Network Operations Management delivers these capabilities not only for Windows and Linux, but also on the innovative Micro Focus ITOM Platform which will enable organizations to scale and manage our solutions more effec-tively than ever before.

Move to Network Operations Management to Drive Productivity for Your OrganizationMicro Focus® Network Operations Management delivers well beyond even integrated versions of Network Node Manager i and Network Automation.

Capabilities

Network Node

Manager

Network

Automation

Network Operations

ManagementDevice discovery, topology, fault, and availability ● ●Network quality of service (QoS) performance monitoring ● ●Application and network traffic performance monitoring ● ●Scalable architecture, virtualization, non-prod nodes, IPv6 ● ● ●Router redundancy, port aggregation ● ●Advanced services monitoring including IPT & MPLS ● ●Device configuration backup and change history ● ●Device OS upgrades and configuration automation ● ●Compliance policy creation with audit and auto-remediation ● ●Customizable executive dashboards ●Performance views correlated with change events ●Network workflow orchestration ●Security content subscription ●ITOM Platform with container-based deployment ●

Comparison of Capabilities

Figure 1. Functional comparison chart of Network Node Manager, Network Automation, and Network Operations Management.

FlyerMove to Network Operations Management to Drive Productivity for Your Organization

2

Network Operations Management Delivers the Following Key Capabilities as Compared to Network Node Manager i and Network AutomationCustomizable Executive Dashboards Visualize Security Risk and Speeds ComplianceNetwork Operations Management includes an advanced visualization technology that is shared across multiple Micro Focus IT Operations Management products. Business Value Dashboards (BVD) can be tailored to meet your needs by presenting data from multiple data sources to convey complex data in a simple manner. A strong example of this capability is the using the dashboard to en-hance network security. Micro Focus Network Operations Management includes a Security Operations dashboard that helps improve and maintain compliance by mapping device infor-mation—including configuration, OS version, and run-time diagnostics into compliance pol-icies. And, it identifies violations in real-time for fast remediation.

Network Workflow OrchestrationWhile Network Node Manager i and Network Automation include user-guided workflows to help users perform triage and resolve tasks, Network Operations Management goes even further to orchestrate interactions with other applications.

To accomplish enterprise-scale IT process au-tomation, NOM includes a license to use Micro Focus Operations Orchestration Studio which provides a powerful graphical process builder and the industries’ leading library of product content packs. Content packs deliver product

integrations and logical process components for fast creation of process flows to fit your unique needs. Figure 3 depicts a typical exam-ple of how NOM performs internal operations such as turning off management of a problem device (to eliminate event floods), integrating with an external ticketing system, and updating configuration details in a central CMDB system. This level of multi-system orchestration pro-vides increased efficiency, adherence to SOPs, fewer errors, and reduced MTTR.

Security Content SubscriptionCurrently available as an add-on for Network Automation, Network Operations Management includes a security update service and remedi-ation repository which solves vulnerabilities for multiple vendors’ equipment and OS software. It also informs users when configurations are behind in updates, which can open your net-work to vulnerabilities.

Figure 2. NOM executive dashboard with security risk content.

Figure 3. Example of NOM network process orchestration

3www.microfocus.com

Performance Views Correlated with Change EventsAs every network manager knows, configura-tion changes are the single largest contributor to network issues. In fact, almost 50% of net-work issues are related to these changes. But, when a device slows down, doing the research around a configuration change wasn’t easy or straightforward because the monitoring system doesn’t maintain awareness of device changes.

Here’s a great example of Network Operations Management enabling operators to quickly di-agnose and resolve a network issue. Pulling in both the configuration and the performance data into a single view, the network operator is able to quickly identify a visual correlation between performance and a configuration change. In Figure 4, the vertical blue bars in-dicate configuration change. The operator is clearly able to see that ICMP response times slow from the 250ms baseline to over 500ms after a change is made and then return to nor-mal after it is quickly rolled back.

As an additional troubleshooting tool, the con-figuration change bar can be right-clicked to bring up a view that identifies line items in the configuration file that have changed. This al-lows the operator the opportunity to open a highly-informative ticket to help an engineer amend the configuration or roll-back to the previous configuration.

Figure 4. Response time chart overlaid with configuration changes (vertical blue bars)

Figure 5. Right-click pop up window highlights configuration changes

Why Upgrade Now?Business requirements for network services can come internally from your team or ex-ternally as the business seeks to grow and gain enhanced agility.* Network Operations Management enables you to respond to busi-ness challenges and enhance your service delivery for current requirements and future requirements. Choosing Network Operations Management now before your business de-mands new capabilities will help ensure your team is well positioned for the future.

FAQsQ: I’m currently using NNMi with NA today—

can I get these extra use-cases and capabilities without moving to NOM?

A: No, the features and use-cases detailed here are only possible with Network Operations Management.

Q: How can I justify the upgrade to Network Operations Management when I already have the top editions of NNMI and/or NA?

A: The ROI for the upgrade to Network Operations Management is visible in the additional capabilities including access to executive dashboards, usage of Operations Orchestration Studio for network orchestration and the included

security content subscription. But, more than that, Network Operations Management is the focus and future of our network management solutions and we will continue to add value to Network Operations Management for the future.

License ConversionsUpgrading from NNMI and/or NA to Network Operations Management is straightforward for customers on a Micro Focus support con-tract. Even without an active contract, there is a process to return to support and get entitle-ment to purchase upgrades. Account repre-sentatives are a great resource to guide you. Our customer appreciation program (CAP) includes special upgrade pricing to enable existing customers to move to NOM in a very cost-effective manner.

Similar to Network Node Manager and Network Automation, Network Operations Management uses network nodes as the primary licensing item. But, NOM introduces a fractional node (1/10th node) for IP telephony and network terminating hosts managed by ICMP (but not SNMP). This customer-friendly licensing model can actually reduce the total number of node licenses required for many customers when upgrading from NNMI and/or NA to NOM.

Learn More Atwww.microfocus.com/nom

161-000197-001 | M | 09/18 | © 2018 Micro Focus or one of its affiliates. Micro Focus and the Micro Focus logo, among others, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Micro Focus or its subsidiaries or affiliated companies in the United Kingdom, United States and other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact us at:www.microfocus.com

__________

* Network Service is Evolving Fast—do you have the tools to keep up?, Dimensional Research