Like Shark Week for network management SLAs

shark-week-SLA-Week

For many, Shark Week is a highlight of the summer’s months-long TV binge session. For others, it’s too much hype on the sensational, not enough on educating the public on some truly specialized and varied animals that are really good at what they do. It’s a lot like marketing an advanced out-of-band management platform. Stick with me here fans of sharks and network management.

Some people are really into sharks and it’s not hard to see why. Those black spooky eyes, rows of teeth, darting through the water… slashing, tearing, gnashing, breaching. Whew! Sharks provide great photo ops. Oh, and occasionally they bite off chunks of people. People! With 40-percent of the world’s population within 60 miles of a coast and another percentage occasionally finding themselves in an ocean for recreation, sharks are relevant. Having recently had the chance to snorkel in the Florida Keys earlier this summer, it crossed my mind more than a few times while I was in the water that re-watching Jaws just a few weeks prior to our trip was not a smart idea.

What about the network management tie-in? Oh yeah.

At Uplogix we have a product that isn’t so flashy-looking. Most every visual aspect of it is purely functional. RJ-45 serial connections, dual Ethernet, a couple of USB ports, depending on model, maybe a dedicated Ethernet card or a heat sink… The Uplogix 5000 does have a sea-blue LCD screen that will give your rack a nice nautical glow.

Like Shark Week fans and critics, we’re divided into separate camps here at Uplogix. For some, the flashy, sensational stories of whiz-bang features really are the must-see TV for Uplogix. Others prefer to admire and appreciate on the workhorse daily-use features of our out-of-band management solution. In the end, they all help our users meet their network SLAs by improving uptime, ensuring network infrastructure is operating as designed and improving security. Here are just a few examples:

Sharks Gone Wild! / Cool product features

  • Automate standard support routines | Uplogix provides numerous recovery procedures that allow you to automatically address common faults without human intervention such as automatically rebooting a hung, or wedged, device to multiple types of configuration recovery. Sleep in! No more weekends and 2 a.m. calls!
  • Recover from failed configuration changes via the powerful SurgicalRollback™ feature | This added “safety net” enables IT staff to make real-time to changes to network elements without the risk of failed configurations impacting operational performance. Cut yourself off making an ACL change? No problem!
  • Using OOB for Primary Traffic | Uplogix can act as a backup cellular router by sharing its out-of-band cellular LTE connection with the local router/firewall/WAN accelerator. Network down? Keep traffic moving over your OOB link!

Jacques Cousteau on sharks / Useful features for daily use

(read these with a heavy French accent)

  • Service Level Verification | Ensures consistent, high levels of IT service by synthetically measuring the performance of critical network services and applications from the end-user’s perspective and comparing the results to drive automation decisions.
  • Easy File Transfer | Local Manager device drivers have functionality that enables manual and automatic transfer of configuration and OS files between the Local Manager and the managed device using Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) or Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP).
  • When you can’t make a serial connection | A Local Manager can be configured to use virtual device management ports. These virtual ports mimic the functionality of the physical serial interfaces on the Local Manager.

Even though these are a just a few examples, you can see where I’m coming from. It’s like the different views on Shark Week, whether you enjoy the hype or the quiet workmanlike features of Uplogix, both can improve your network SLAs. To hear our stories of whiz-bang automation that saved some admin’s bacon that day when it really hit the fan, or about how customers build Uplogix into their standard processes and procedures, you should talk with us to see what Uplogix can do for your network.

Published:

Share:

Subscribe to Blog Updates

More Posts

Uplogix Resource Center

Uplogix attacks the challenges of network management from a different angle. Take a few minutes to browse through our Data Sheets, Case Studies and additional resources to see for yourself.