The Value of Consultants, System Admins, and Project Managers

For a large (20+) NNM system project there is just too much work for only one or two people to complete the activities in a reasonable time frame. A great deal of skill in many areas is required and this is hard to find in a single person.

For large NNM deployments, skill in basic networking technologies is a must. Knowledge of hubs, repeaters, bridges, switches, routing switches, routers, and application gateways is needed. So is an understanding of DNS, X-windows, TCP/IP, routing, and LAN/WAN infrastructures. A network consultant can help with this.

Since NNM runs on an operating system, skill is needed in building and configuring the O/S, creating install scripts, automating processes, troubleshooting, account management, disk volume management, backup and recovery, and configuration of the networking subsystems. A dedicated system administrator can provide this service.

Skill with NNM installation, configuration, customization, maintenance, updating, training, and mentoring is also needed. Consultants are key people here.

Since the project is large, skill is needed in coordinating the various players, tracking project milestones, scheduling meetings, identifying critical paths in the project plan, locating resources, and interfacing with the steering committee. Therefore, a project manager is needed.

For special requirements that NNM does not satisfy, custom code has to be developed to deal with customized maps, configuration file management, data display routines, and SNMP database truncation scripts. This requires skill in Perl, C/C++, and shell scripting, plus training in the NNM developer kit. This kind of work is best done by a software developer.