Merging the Power of Network & IT

The need to accelerate the creation and delivery of services, squeeze costs out of operations, and build closer customer relationships is causing service providers, large enterprises and entities like the U.S. Army to rethink their OSS strategies.

Only a few years ago, using OSS to manage IT would have been unnecessary because enterprise-oriented applications were adequate. The extensive deployment of content-based services today makes OSS essential for managing IT.

Service providers now have to invoke IT infrastructure as much as the traditional telecom network to create and deliver a service.

The new converged services world is very different from the one in which OSS managed connection-oriented services. While traditional services use Layers 1–3, next-generation services use all seven layers.

Provisioning and fulfilling next-generation converged services across network and IT domains requires a next-generation OSS combined with organizational transformation.

The next-generation OSS must manage all seven layers from a single platform.

Managing network and IT from a single platform streamlines service provisioning and activation through reuse of standard service, network and device software modules. This enables the OSS to invoke relationships among databases, network elements, work orders, and billing and activation systems independent of domain. The result is rapid service deployment and increased customer satisfaction.

The industry has recognized the need to manage across IT and network domains, and this is driving the integration of eTOM and the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

Since the management of converged services will rely increasingly on the mapping of data, applications, and processes across network and IT domains, next-generation OSS must embrace both eTOM and ITIL and manage both domains from a single platform.

Merging Network and IT

The U.S. Army and U.S. Army National Guard are at the leading edge of managing extensive networks across both network and IT infrastructures. While some service providers plan to manage across IT and network domains, few have done so on the scale of the U.S. Army and U.S. Army National Guard, which own the largest communications infrastructure in the world.

An Army initiative called the Enterprise Infrastructure Management (EIM) Project sought to create, automate and manage an end-to-end view of its IT and telecom software and hardware resources. Its goal was to make any service available on any device over any network. It would give military personnel required communications capabilities whenever and wherever needed.

The EIM Project would enable applications to work as soldiers migrated from satellite to cellular to landline networks. Achieving this goal would require flexible inventory models, network adapters, reconciliation processes and workflows.

Previously, the Army’s inventory and configuration processes had been manual, with inventory information being gathered by "data calls" requesting manual counts. This approach lacked real-time visibility into actual hardware and software inventory and utilization.

The Army wanted a solution centered on inventory data — something it considered invaluable for business process automation — and revamped their inventory reporting process so that minimal human intervention would be required.

The Army selected NetCracker Technology Corp.’s software and hardware inventory management solution to manage services across the Army’s formidable network and IT infrastructure. They sought a provider whose solutions and strategies had been proven in Tier 1 commercial deployments and provided flexibility and scalability.

The Army and Army National Guard have used NetCracker’s inventory, reconciliation, workflow and fulfillment capabilities to increase automation, improve the management of IT and network assets, and provide deconflicted end-to-end resource views.

NetCracker’s v7.0 platform links to system management servers to gather information about software usage on PCs and servers, manages software licenses, and coordinates that information with network information such as WAN capacity, thus merging the power of both IT and telecom networks. This capability creates a unique OSS that enables service providers to operate across network and IT domains.

The NetCracker EIM solution enables deployment assistance and IT and telecom equipment allocation assurance for military personnel, ensuring the right equipment for the right mission. When services are needed in the field, they now can be configured completely before being deployed. Services include installing appropriate software on PCs, managing software licenses and providing WAN connectivity.

NetCracker’s solution enables real-time IT and telecom network management, reporting and automated, network-aware processes. It communicates with multiple systems management servers that use agents to query software in the IT network to identify installed software and usage data. It also gathers resource inventory data about telecom network elements and services. The data then are modeled and reconciled to provide rapid and accurate deployments as well as automatically generated, end-to-end views of the actual IT and telecom resources.

Mapping Network/IT Data

To provide the flexibility the Army required, NetCracker employed an arsenal of standards-based principles so its solution could accommodate new technologies and trends.

As an active member of the TM Forum’s eTOM and ITIL committees, NetCracker incorporated the following NGOSS principles: SID for data modeling, eTOM for processes and the TAM (Telecom Applications Map) for correlating applications. In Layers 5–7, NetCracker used ITSM (IT Service Management) frameworks such as ITIL and CIM (Common Information Model). NetCracker created complementary alignment between NGOSS (eTOM, TAM and SID) and ITSM (ITIL and CIM), supporting interoperability across the two domains.

Using eTOM and ITIL, NetCracker outlined attributes and processes representing relationships among services, applications, platforms and infrastructure. NetCracker also incorporated IT elements into telecom workflows to reflect an accurate inventory of assets across both domains.

Inventory accuracy was improved by synchronizing the database of record (the inventory) with what truly was active and inactive in the network and IT infrastructures. In addition, integrated workflows and processes were created by leveraging eTOM and ITIL. Within workflows, common processes were harmonized to eliminate duplication, and unique processes were added.

NetCracker defined infrastructure-agnostic models that abstracted the actual inventory, and created enhanced device models, representational models and attribute-capturing mechanisms. These enabled the capture of any service or any IT or network attribute — whether port, line card, chassis, server or PC — as well as the applications running on them.

To understand the relationships between elements and services, NetCracker modeled the correlation between the hardware, the services and the network using standards-based interfaces that acted as building blocks within the representational model. Drag-and-drop functionality via a graphical representation allowed IT elements to be incorporated easily into traditional network models and vice versa. NetCracker’s platform modeled and presented any content — pictures, videos or text — in any combination.

In addition, NetCracker managed available capacity by allocating capacity, not just by monitoring "in use" or "available" capacity. This provided accurate management of remaining capacity.

NetCracker’s use of eTOM and ITIL — as well as other industry standards — and its flexible, network-agnostic approaches created a future-proof solution for the U.S. Army as well as for today’s rapidly changing communications world.

Managing Licenses

In addition to configuring network and IT services for military personnel, the Army has used NetCracker’s solution to manage automatically — from a central location — hundreds of software licenses. NetCracker’s automated processes led to the adoption of Lean Six Sigma practices within the Army, which reduced variances and managed usage among installed COTS products and software licenses.

A Lean Six Sigma workflow application of NetCracker’s EIM solution manages the Army’s software license utilization. A NetCracker repository stores software deployment, utilization and license data. Through an automated workflow process, unused software is removed from the device, and the license is placed in the repository for reuse or elimination. This solution allows the Army to manage tightly its vast numbers of software licenses and reduce new license acquisition costs.

EIM currently links to numerous system management servers so that the Army can integrate information about software usage on PCs and servers to network information about WAN capacity. That has enabled the Army to deploy equipment and capacity to soldiers on the fly, as opposed to evaluating manually the variance between installed, used and licensed software, and the enterprise license agreements negotiated for each application.

The Army now can negotiate better terms for its various software applications since it can track the number of available licenses and actual installed licenses. It also obtains improved visibility into what applications have been used and how often.

NetCracker’s solution enables the Army to:

• Track and manage IT and telecom assets and integrate the resulting data into an EIM repository
• Apply workflows to a wide range of Army IT management functions from software utilization to service management
• Ensure accurate, on-time service delivery to military personnel
• Lower and optimize service delivery costs
• Streamline and automate operations

The Army deployments demonstrate the value and benefits of managing network and IT software and hardware from a single platform. NetCracker has deployed similar solutions with Tier 1 service providers in Europe and North America.

Driving Next-Gen OSS

The growth of content-rich services and key technology advances — all IP networks, the merging of network and IT, ubiquitous broadband and wireless, and a continuous stream of innovative end-user devices — profoundly are changing the way service providors fulfill and deliver services. If OSS are to remain strategic, they must evolve to serve this changing environment. NetCracker’s U.S. Army projects and its Tier 1 implementations in Europe and North America are impressive examples of strategically designed and successfully deployed next-generation OSS.

Sanjay Mewada is vice president of strategy for NetCracker, which delivers service and resource management through its software and implementation solutions.