Vol. 7: Managing & Securing Converged Networks

Table of Contents

1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5
2 MANAGING CONVERGED NETWORKS 6
2.1 MANAGEMENT SHORTCOMINGS 6
2.2 MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES: GETTING STARTED 7
2.2.1 Baseline Network Assessment 7
2.2.2 Baseline Network Assessment: Costs & Vendors 9
2.2.3 Benchmarking Network, Application Performance 13
2.3 BUDGETING FOR MANAGEMENT TOOLS 15
2.4 MANAGEMENT VENDOR SELECTION 16
2.5 DRILL DOWN: WHAT’S IN DEMAND FOR MANAGEMENT TOOLS? 22
2.5.1 VOIP Management Lifecycle 24
2.6 PROFESSIONAL SERVICES 25
2.6.1 Leveraging the Third Parties—How? 27
2.6.2 Why the Draw to Managed Service Offerings? 30
2.6.3 Who’s Offering Managed & Hosted Services? 31
2.7 OPTIMIZING THE NETWORK 32
2.8 SECURING CONVERGED NETWORKS 34
2.8.1 What are the Threats? 35
2.8.2 Protecting VOIP 35
2.9 RECOMMENDATIONS 37
2.9.1 For Vendors and Carriers 37
2.9.2 For Customers 38
3 CUSTOMIZED FINDINGS 39
4 APPENDIX A: REPORT METHODOLOGY 40
4.1 PROCESS 40
4.2 TIMEFRAME 42
4.3 PARTICIPANTS 42
4.4 BY INDUSTRY 43
4.5 BY SIZE 44
4.6 DISCLAIMER/DISTRIBUTION 45
5 APPENDIX B: PEER PROFILE BENCHMARK DESCRIPTIONS 46

Table of Figures

FIGURE 1: RELEVANCE OF MANAGEMENT TOOLS IN VENDOR DECISIONS 6
FIGURE 2: BASELINE NETWORK ASSESSMENT PLANS 8
FIGURE 3: HOW OFTEN DO YOU BENCHMARK NETWORK PERFORMANCE? 12
FIGURE 4: RECOMMENDED MANAGEMENT BUDGET 16
FIGURE 5: WHAT TYPE OF MANAGEMENT TOOL DO YOU USE? 17
FIGURE 6: MANAGEMENT TOOL ADOPTION, BY INDUSTRY 19
FIGURE 7: USE IP PBX MANAGEMENT TOOLS 20
FIGURE 8: USE SPECIALTY MANAGEMENT TOOLS 21
FIGURE 9: WHAT SHOULD BE IN A VOIP MANAGEMENT TOOL? 23
FIGURE 11: DO YOU PLAN TO USE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES? 26
FIGURE 12: WHO WILL PROVIDE YOUR THIRD-PARTY SERVICES? 27
FIGURE 13: WHAT THIRD-PARTY SERVICES WILL YOU BUY? 28
FIGURE 14: USE THIRD-PARTY MANAGEMENT SERVICES 29
FIGURE 15: ARE YOU USING NETWORK-OPTIMIZATION TOOLS? 34
FIGURE 16: SECURITY MEASURES FOR VOIP NETWORKS 36
FIGURE 17: PARTICIPANTS BY TITLE 41
FIGURE 18: PARTICIPANTS BY INDUSTRY 42
FIGURE 19: ANNUAL REVENUE 43
FIGURE 20: IT BUDGET 44

Table of Tables

TABLE 1: NETWORK READY? WHAT'S THE BEST APPROACH ? 10
TABLE 2: IP TELEPHONY MANAGEMENT TOOLS, BY COMPANY SIZE 18
TABLE 3: MANAGED-SERVICES OFFERINGS 31
TABLE 4: NETWORK OPTIMIZATION 33

Executive Summary

Convergence projects are running strong in the vast majority of organizations. Voice typically is the first application implemented on a converged IP backbone, and Nemertes is starting to see IT executives explore new applications, such as video, unified communications, collaborative tools and real-time communications dashboards. They’re also recognizing the need for network optimization, branch-office technologies, enhanced management tools, and detailed cost analyses. And finally, they’re waiting not-so-patiently for the carriers to catch up with market demands.

Volume 7 of the “Convergence & Next-Generation WAN Technologies” benchmark explores trends and best practices for managing and securing converged networks. Managing a converged network can be one of the most challenging pieces of the entire project, yet it’s a piece that doesn’t get the attention or budget it deserves up front. The volume will explain why 85% of organizations don’t budget for VOIP-specific management up front, and what fallout those decisions have on the network overall.

Volumes 8 of this benchmark will provide an assessment of mobility and wireless trends with converged networks. Additional volumes explore vendor and carrier analyses, organizational and operational best practices, branch-office trends, mobility plans, and WAN service/technology trends. Nemertes also provides a Convergence Market Analysis, which explores the differences between vendors and service providers in the convergence space. We also analyze organizational best practices based on Nemertes’ Peer Profile Benchmarks, a multi-faceted method of categorizing companies.

Please contact research manager Shirlene Browne, shirlene@nemertes.com if you would like to schedule a briefing.