Chapter 9. Developing Network Management Strategies

This chapter concludes the discussion of logical network design. Network management is one of the most important aspects of logical network design. Management is often overlooked during the design of a network because it is considered an operational issue rather than a design issue. If you consider management from the beginning, however, you can avoid scalability and performance problems that occur when management is added to a design after the design is complete.

A good network management design can help an organization achieve availability, performance, and security goals. Effective network management processes can help an organization measure how well design goals are being met and adjust network parameters if these goals are not being met. Network management also facilitates meeting scalability goals because it can help an organization analyze current network behavior, apply upgrades appropriately, and troubleshoot any problems with upgrades. The goal of this chapter is to help you work with your network design customer in the development of management strategies and to help you select the right tools and products to implement the strategies.