Product Report: Network Necessities

As the network becomes increasingly critical to the infrastructure of just about every company, network management software is evolving as a key tool to help companies make the most of networking technology. Customers are looking for products that integrate readily with their existing network components and are reliable and easy to use. In addition, VARs report that customers want network management software that provides a broad range of capabilities including repair, traffic management, remote administration and auto-discovery.

"With more and more of daily business activity transitioning into the Internet, it is going to be more important for customers to manage the network environment," says Karl Chen, channels marketing manager for OpenView at Hewlett-Packard Co. in Roseville, Calif. "When we lived behind the firewall, it was easier to manage uptime, availability, security and how long transactions took. The Internet brings in a whole new set of requirements."

Vendors of Choice Tie

VARBusiness' Product Report, a tele-marketing survey of 140 VARs on network management features and vendors, found that Cisco Systems Inc. (with 60 points) and HP (with 59.9 points) were tied as the favored network management software vendors. Cisco took first place in two criteria, and tied with HP for pricing and with Sun Microsystems Inc. in the area of auto-discovery. Cisco also earned 31 percent of the mentions for best-selling brand.

HP led in four out of eight criteria. Thirty-four percent of VARs surveyed also named HP's products as their best-selling network management software.

Sun and Computer Associates International Inc. (CA) tied for third place with 56.7 points, and Network Associates came in last with 53.4 points. For sales, CA ranked third with 14 percent, Sun was fourth with 11 percent and Network Associates trailed with 10 percent.

VARs tapped Cisco as the most improved brand, earning 25 percent of the votes, while CA and HP were just a hairbreadth behind with 24 percent of the mentions each. Sun earned 17 percent of the votes and Network Associates took 11 percent.

Reliability a Top Concern

As always, reliability is a key concern with VARs and one that is becoming more crucial as the importance of the network increases exponentially. Cisco took the blue ribbon for reliability with a score of 8.6 points, with HP just two-tenths of a point behind. Sun scored an 8.2, CA garnered a 7.8 and Network Associates lagged half a point behind CA.

Across the board, customers large and small are concerned about finding tools that are easy to use during and after installation. "At the enterprise level, companies have staffs to manage the network. At the small-business end, customers don't really manage their networks," says Troy Trenchard, director of product marketing for low-end access routers at Cisco. "Instead, they are focused on keeping it up and going, but aren't usually staffed to be proactive about it."

HP Wins For Ease of Use

Because smaller companies often can't afford a dedicated staff for network management, ease of use becomes paramount. "Our customers want to maintain their networks or have someone in-house maintain it," says Kevin Wallace, a computer consultant at K & K Computer Service Inc., a Foley, Ala.-based VAR. "They mainly want to have someone designated as a systems manager and have that person handle it unless the network crashes totally."

HP pulled into first place with a score of 7.7 points, while Cisco claimed second place with a 7.5. The rest of the pack were far behind the leaders: CA earned a score of 7.2, and Sun and Network Associates tied with a score of 7.1.

As networks get more complex, customers are also trying to identify and address problematic situations before the network actually goes down in order to save the loss of time and productivity associated with downtime. "Ideally, repair capabilities allow customers to identify the problem and take a reactive situation and turn it proactive," says HP's Chen. "Instead of allowing things to go down, the system notifies someone when a certain threshold is hit." HP (with a 7.7) and Cisco (with a 7.6) were neck and neck in terms of repair capabilities. Sun was third with a 7.4, while CA was just one-tenth of a point behind. Network Associates lagged behind considerably with a score of 6.5.

Larger users, in particular, are also asking for tools that let them optimize their networks by giving certain kinds of traffic higher priority. "As the network becomes more detailed and powerful, the tools have to become more powerful as well," says Cisco's Trenchard. "Many network managers are skilled at understanding the traffic on the core of the network and how to determine what the potential sources of congestion or network outages would be using network management tools.

Cisco was the clear-cut leader in terms of traffic management capabilities with a score of 7.9. The next closest contender was HP with a 7.3. Sun earned 7.1 points, while CA scored a 7.0. Network Associates was last with a 6.6.

The move to browser-based management tools seen in almost every network management solution has been a real boon to those who want to manage certain network events remotely. "The Web browser paradigm allows for the administration of an IT network from anywhere at any time," says Andrew Taylor, group marketing manager at Sun. "Network managers want to be able to interrogate the network and manage it from home or wherever they are."

For remote help-desk capabilities, a very close race put HP in first place with a 7.1, and tied Cisco and CA with a 7.0. Sun scored a 6.9, while Network Associates earned a 6.3.

Auto-discovery: Sun's Only Hot Spot

Pricing on remote management software presents a complex equation. The cost of these software systems varies greatly depending on the capabilities of the solution. "To succeed, vendors will have to have good market segmentation and solutions that are priced appropriate to the value they are delivering to different segments of market," says HP's Chen.

Cisco and HP shared first place for pricing with a 7.2, while CA was next in line with a 6.8. Sun and Network Associates also tied with 6.5 points each.

Users expect auto-discovery, or the ability to find and identify different elements in the network, to be included as a matter of course, vendors report. As such, Sun claimed its only first-place rating (a score of 7.0), sharing the spotlight with Cisco. HP was second with a 6.9, while CA was third with a 6.8. Network Associates trailed with a score of 6.2.

Although once very important, support for legacy systems is becoming less so. "Our industry is moving so fast, and the opportunity cost of downtime is so high, that users don't have time to look in the rearview mirror," says Chen, adding that many customers expect bandwidth consumption to expand tenfold during the next five years. "The amount of the bandwidth and the business they are doing across the network is growing so dramatically that legacy systems just can't handle it, so there's less need to consider legacy support."

HP was tapped as the best solution for those with legacy systems, scoring a 7.3, while Cisco was second with a 6.9. CA and Network Associates shared third place with a 6.6. Sun came in last with a 6.2.

-Hailey Lynne McKeefry is a freelance technical writer based in Richmond Hill, N.Y.

Methodology: Companies rated in this Product Report were selected by market share and sales through VARs. VARs' names were selected from VARBusiness' circulation database. 140 VARs rated the importance of eight product features and their satisfaction with their vendors' products for those features. The scores printed are the unweighted mean ratings in each category. Vendors' weighted total scores are based on their performance ratings in the eight features multiplied by the importance rating of each feature. Research results are at a 94 percent confidence level. Interviews were conducted Dec. 9 to 18, 1998, by Bernett Research Services, Boston.

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-Quick Scan

Cisco Systems Inc. San Jose, Calif. (800) 553-6387, www.cisco.com

Computer Associates International Inc. Islandia, N.Y. (800) 225-5224, www.cai.com

Hewlett-Packard Co. Palo Alto, Calif. (650) 857-1501, www.hp.com

Network Associates Inc. Santa Clara, Calif. (408) 988-3832, www.nai.com

Sun Microsystems Inc. Palo Alto, Calif. (650) 960-1300, www.sun.com