Five Design Principles for the Network Architect - Supportability
(#5 of 7) As this series has developed, we have addressed a number of areas that affect the detail of the technical solution to be deployed. Supportability is more concerned with the legacy that the deployment project leaves behind. As we have already seen, the purpose of the network is to provide a level of connectivity availability for an application or service to a consumer of that service. The concept of supportability complements that, ensuring that appropriate monitoring of the environment is in place; that the correct tooling is available to maintain and change the infrastructure if required; and the processes are available to ensure that service levels are maintained. This is the area that dovetails with the end customer's operational model and so is driven by their 'day 2' requirements. Let's address these areas one by one. Visibility When we discussed availability, I made mention of the fact that we can't have a 'one size fits all' ap