14.6 Conclusion

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Virtually every carrier, service provider, integrator, and enterprise uses network documentation and design tools in some way. The sales account teams and technical consultants of carriers, service providers, and integrators use these tools to propose services to customers and potential customers. Other support people use them to answer RFPs. Engineers use them to provision services to customers. Enterprise telecom and IT departments use these tools to help track their technology assets and as the reference point for making design changes to systems and networks.

The price of a good drawing and documentation package like Visio Professional is so low that there is no downside to buying the product and using it immediately. For organizations that need more than a drawing and documentation package, products from Fluke Networks, Netformx, and NetViz are worthy of serious consideration, depending on specific functional needs. The price on all three is reasonable, considering they are true design tools that pack a lot of features, including linkages with Microsoft’s Visio.

While drawing tools are good for laying out and documenting networks, true design tools discover a network, offer a visual design environment for diagramming network changes, and simulate how a new application or new network components will affect response times. They also produce reports documenting the existing and proposed networks. Unfortunately, no single product does all these things perfectly, so multiple tools may have to be used.

For example, some tools offer good design, simulation, and documentation features, but they do not discover an existing network. Others not only discover existing networks, they can import network device information discovered by third-party sources such as Hewlett-Packard’s OpenView or Network Associates’ Sniffer. Other design tools are very adept at discovering, designing, and documenting a network but do not include a simulation capability to test new designs or changes against real applications or network activity.

Despite the limitations of particular products, no service provider or IT organization can afford to be without them. Even the use of multiple tools will save money by shortening the design-to-deployment cycle and contribute to a successful network implementation by identifying standards violations, interface incompatibilities, invalid equipment configurations, and other errors that can impede progress.

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