Costing It Out
The annual cost of nine networking and six helpdesk staffers--$1.08 million including benefits--could pay for outsourcing of network and systems management (NSM) functions and still leave some money to be shifted to development efforts. In addition, TacDoh's budget was clogged with the usual high-cost management tools, including Hewlett-Packard's HP OpenView, Concord Communications' eHealth, and CiscoWorks and N-Form for the Adtran frame relay access devices. We earmarked MRCs (monthly recurring charges) for this network-management hardware and software as funds that could be repurposed. We stated no requirements regarding removing any or all existing personnel and management systems, but we made clear this was a cost-offset attempt (for more on how we figured TacDoh's current costs, see "Cost Comparison: Chewing the Fat").
We found that our fried-pie-in-the-sky economizing calculations were nave. Some vendors were more aggressive, but our savings were less than we'd hoped, to say the least (see the cost comparison chart on page 58).
The Network
The TacDoh empire makes and sells deep-fried snack foods through 300 retail outlets in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest that are connected via frame relay to three warehouse distribution centers. Corporate TacDoh is located at the Chicago warehouse site. The warehouses are meshed over the Internet using Route Science 3100 Path Control devices (for the particulars of TacDoh's situation, see "Scenario" on page 56).
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
