Stretching your network budget: Automate

Jeff Mersberger, systems engineer at the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo in Plano, Texas, is using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) software to automate the task of assigning IP addresses and he's exploring caching products to stretch his existing WAN bandwidth.

Mersberger says he's responsible for more than 3,400 desktops at 320 remote field sites, distribution centers and plants across the country. It used to be that every time someone moved to a new address, his team had to manually reconfigure the machine in order to map the IP address to the right subnet. He set up two DHCP servers that now handle that task automatically. "It saves us a lot of administrative overhead,'' he says.

Mersberger is now looking into caching software to improve WAN performance at his remote sites, most of which are served by pipes that range in size from 56K to 512K bit/sec. He's also looking into reverse caching, which involves placing a cache between the company's Web server and the Internet so frequently accessed Web pages from the company's Web site will be available faster.

Mark Nash, team leader of network systems at HealthNow New York, a health insurance provider in Buffalo, is stretching his budget through a variety of consolidation and automation initiatives.

On the WAN side, he consolidated voice, video and data onto an ATM network. Putting video on the net allowed him to eliminate $2,000 per month in ISDN charges. Adding voice saved him $12,000 per month by letting him pull the plug on four PBX interconnect lines that linked his call centers.

And he is taking full advantage of ATM's ability to prioritize traffic. Nash says his company used to buy enough bandwidth to accommodate peak traffic, which was 45M bit/sec. But he analyzed that traffic and determined that only 20M bit/sec was mission-critical.

So Nash slashed his bandwidth requirements accordingly and used his ATM switch's quality-of-service capabilities to ensure that the important traffic got through. The move is saving him $18,000 per month in WAN charges.

On the LAN side, Nash consolidated a "smorgasbord of protocols'' into two - IP and SNA. This has made it easier for his team to manage the network. Nash moved from expensive Layer 3 switches to Layer 2 multiprotocol switches, which reduced his per-port costs from $600 to $150.

In addition, he flattened the network and reduced the number of subnets from six to three, simplifying network tuning and management.

Finally, Nash is using IBM's network management software to install software on remote PCs. The software wakes up the PC and loads whatever is needed: for example, a new operating system or new applications.

Nash says he has been able to increase the number of desktops he handles from 1,000 to 2,500 while keeping a lid on new hires. His help desk consists of 10 people for 2,500 desktops, for a ratio of 1-to-250.

Automated file storage and recovery is another way to save money. Rick Mickool, chief information officer at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is in the process of replacing more than 800 Compaq PCs used by faculty and administrators with Dell PCs. He needed an efficient way to store the data from the old machines and install the files on the new machines in a way that was transparent to the end user.

Mickool found a tool called Connected Network Backup from Connected Corp. Connected Network Backup automatically saves and compresses copies of files and applications on the original machine and puts them on the new machine.

Halfway through the process, Mickool says he has replaced 418 machines and backed up a total of 768G bytes of data. But the compression features of the Connected tool have reduced the storage requirements to 90G bytes, saving Mickool an estimated $100,000 in disk costs.

Not only that, Mickool plans to keep the system up and running once the school year begins and use it for automatic file backup and recovery.

More tips:

Consolidate
Server consolidation brings million-dollar savings

Standardize
Setting standards makes life easier.

Negotiate
Nice guys finish last in contract negotiations.

Delegate
Outsourcing offers new lease on your network.

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