It's always the network's fault or that's how it usually seems to the network group at most organizations. The blame for business application failures needs to land somewhere and, historically, the network was a good choice. In the pioneer days of networking the network often was the problem - it seemed a miracle that information made it from one system to another - but networking has come a very long way since that time. 

Absolute dependence on the network for a vast amount of business processing has led to comprehensive management tools that let us all know when network problems are brewing. Or do they? One area that continues to plague network support organizations is configuration change management. If the router configuration changes aren't made perfectly network compatibility problems ensue. And the reason that configuration errors are so common is that there are simply so many of them. Networks teem with routers and switches that, in the normal course of business, need configuration adjustments. Furthermore, the devices are often from multiple vendors, each with its own command-line structures. The number of changes can be daunting and the variety of syntax can be overwhelming. If the configuration changes are done manually the opportunity for errors is tremendous. Just the timing issues associated with manual input - some devices will be changed before others - can expose configuration discrepancies that result in network outages. Another common problem is discrepancy between the startup and running configurations. This happens when a configuration change is made correctly but is not saved to non-volatile RAM. In the event of a device reboot, the device reverts to the old configuration and results in a network issue.

There is a solution to the configuration change dilemma. First, if configuration management is integrated into the network management fault solution you achieve correlation of network events with configuration changes and gain insight on problematical configuration changes as part of the root-cause analysis. In addition, you can also obtain a configuration audit trail of any selected network device through the history that is typically retained by network management tools. .Second, by automating configuration changes you eliminate manual errors and time delays that can cause outages, you are instantly notified of changes and you relieve your IT staff of this tedious, but important, task - moving you towards Lean IT. 

What's good for the network is also good for service assurance - closing the loop on network problems will go a long way towards keeping your services humming. For more information on the value of integrated fault and configuration management and how automation can help you, check out http://www.comnews.com/features/2008_april/0408_close.aspx.