Linux Journal: Linux in Enterprise Network Management

“Providing network information to customers on an Intranet saves
both time and money for this international chemical company.”
Article by Leo Lahteenmaki.

“Maintainability is always a question when using open-source
products. For us, the question is easy because our network
management services would not exist without open-source tools. We
tried to deliver “self-service network management” using a
well-known and expensive commercial product. We soon found that
even keeping this tool running required frequent visits from a
vendor’s consultant with a fee of over $1000/day. Using it to make
the network information available on the Web would have been
extremely expensive to set up and maintain.”

“Our customers feel they can do their job better now that they
can access real-time network information with their browser. A
telephone call to a human operator sitting in front of his
expensive network management workstation cannot give them this
service. We also feel that open-source tools and in-house scripts
can be easily maintained and secured for a corporate
environment.

“We are expanding our use of the Linux platform into new
applications such as directory services, log file management and
network traffic analysis.”

Complete
article.