At the request of Visual Networks, Core Competence conducted an evaluation of the Visual UpTime™ WAN Service Level Management System, a wide area network support system designed to manage Frame Relay, X.25, dedicated line, and ATM network services for Visual Networks products. Our staff studied a network operational database collected by a large-scale Visual Networks Frame Relay customer. We interviewed the customer's WAN operations staff and administrators, discussed their WAN management operations strategy, workflows and instrumentation, discussed the customer's expectations of Visual UpTime™, and whether those expectations were currently being met.

This paper presents excerpts from a technical evaluation of the Visual UpTime™ product. We describe the customer's WAN, WAN management operations, and explain the roles Visual UpTime™ plays in the customer's operations strategy. From the network operational database provided by the customer, we identify ways that the Visual UpTime™ system improved the customer's ability to manage its WAN services, and discovered ways this customer could further enhance WAN service level management. The results and recommendations we present here are generally applicable to large-scale enterprise networks using Frame Relay. The detailed report may be read here as well.

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