Web-Based Management: 9 Products to Help Simplify Your Network Web Interface The Web-enabled front end, which provides universal access to the management application, varies from simple HTML forms to client-side Java applets. Since it's difficult to create "buttons," or other controls using straight HTML, an immediate concern is whether this interface is rich enough to be an effective management console. Many vendors prefer using Java applets to provide a GUI via the Web browser. However, Java is still a relatively new technology, and GUI classes, or libraries, are not yet completely refined and perfected. Industry hype aside, Web-enabling network management applications doesn't constitute a quantum leap above existing technology. For years, network managers have hacked with Perl, C/C++ and even GNUplot to create graphs of SNMP or other network statistics. Making this data available through a Web server is almost a no-brainer--all you have to do is add a Web front end to existing applications or provide a way to configure or monitor a network device or service via a Web browser. For example, users and administrators can easily access information about the network's status, current statistics and baselines with network baselining products like Concord Communications' Network Health and Desktalk Systems' Trend Web, which let you generate Web-publishable reports. Reporting takes advantage of the Web to publish information, and may possibly offer some sort of interactivity such as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script that generates performance graphs. Tools that perform configuration are included in devices lik e U.S. Robotics' TOTALswitch or Acacia's NovaSwitch 2400ex, which embed HTTP servers in their firmware. Microsoft's Windows NT Web Manager or Netscape's Administration Server similarly use HTML forms and server-side executables for configuration, monitoring and other administration, in effect using the Web as a universal interface. Compared to managing devices exclusively through a serial port or telnet session, even HTML forms are a step up, especially for new users. Embedding a Web server and a Web-based configuration utility in the product also frees developers from maintaining external management applications--which solves the problem of client platform support and provides the potential to maintain parallel code for administrative applications on multiple platforms. The downside to these products is they generally focus on a single object, rather than on the network as a whole. It's a great way to configure an Ethernet switch, but it's not geared to handle an enterprise environment with hundreds of switches. What's more, each product is independent, and interfaces are not always consistent, even among a single vendor's products. Later Web management applications use Java applets to varying degrees, instead of simple HTML forms and back-end processing. Primarily an interface enhancement, a Java applet can graphically represe nt data or present user-manipulated controls or widgets (dial, buttons, switches, etc.) ý la native X Windows, Win32 or Macintosh applications. These applets offer a much richer user interface and help maintain communication with the back-end server to allow real-time monitoring. Web-based network management also adds another critical piece of functionality: client-side processing. Instead of relying on a server-side application to process data, the application can perform the task on the client's processor to present data dynamically or accept user feedback without relying on server-side scripts. In addition to processing, many client-side applets provide some sort of back -end data store. Applications such as Newbridge Networks' NetDirector@Web fall into this category.

To see the Side Bar on Weaving Security into web fabric Bridging the Business-to-Business Authentication Gap by Christy Hudgins-Bonafield Updated July 10, 1997