Products: Discovery and Reconciliation
Given the complexity of today’s networks and their relationships to other operational and IT systems, keeping network resource data current and synchronized can be a significant task.
Network-driven organizations face the daunting challenge of having hundreds of thousands to millions of network assets, purchased from dozens of vendors, speaking a multitude of management protocols, with tens of millions of lines of configuration, across hundreds of millions of interfaces, supporting multiple diverse services, all of which must integrate perfectly across a large number of databases supplied by various independent OSS and IT systems vendors.
Intelliden’s Discovery and Reconciliation (D&R) solution maintains a ‘trusted source of network data’ based on the real-time state of the network devices, and reconciles this information with other applications such as inventory, service provisioning, fault management and CMDB.
Built to support TM Forum’s latest Multi-Technology Operations System Interface (MTOSI) Release 2.0, Intelliden D&R reduces the integration costs and development time associated with linking multiple applications.
Unique Capabilities
- Maintains a Trusted Source of Network Truth™
- Tightly integrates network change and resource reconciliation processes
- Augments resource information with non-discoverable, static data
- Provides a standards-based normalized interface for easy integration
- Addresses compliance and security risks associated with 'dirty inventory'
Challenges
Service providers and other network-driven enterprises face a number of costs and challenges associated with stranded network assets and inaccurate databases of record:
- Provisioning errors caused due to inaccurate inventory databases
- Cost of excess capital invested in unnecessary network equipment
- Operating costs of excess inventory over its useful life
- Inefficient root cause analysis and fault resolution
- Heightened compliance and security risks
Solution
Intelliden Discovery and Reconciliation (D&R) is designed specifically for multi-vendor, multi-service networks, and provides real-time and continuous reconciliation of network resource data. It detects changes to network assets as they occur and reconciles these with third party applications in a standardized format. This helps to reduce “inventory drift” i.e. increasing discrepancy between actually provisioned and presumed state of network in applications such as inventory. It also provides a seamless integration with Intelliden’s network configuration compliance, and provisioning applications thereby enabling early detection of network changes.
Key capabilities include:
Device Discovery and Synchronization
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Discovers network devices and related information such as chassis, memory, cards, ports, serial numbers, OS on a scheduled or ad-hoc basis
- Augments network resource information with non-discoverable, static information such as interface speed auto sensing and PoE
- Maintains real-time record of physical and logical resources in its persistent store – the Network Database of Record (DBoR)
Network Resource Reconciliation
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Creates a normalized view of network resources and presents this information in a standardized format (e.g. XML, .csv)
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Performs discrepancy analysis between information stored in third party applications and the ‘actual state’ in the Network DBoR
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Provides manual and automated discrepancy reconciliation via an MTOSI compliant Web Services interface
Multi-vendor Device Support
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Provides support for major device vendors and types including core, access, distribution and CPE routers/switches
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Enables rapid addition of new devices through meta-data extensions
Standards-based, Scalable Architecture
- Scales up to hundreds of thousands devices and large transaction volumes
- Open architecture and web services APIs
- Out of the box support for TM Forum’s MTOSI 2.0 standard
Benefits
Intelliden Discovery and Reconciliation application provides a number of unique benefits:
- Faster, accurate provisioning and reduced order fallout due to ‘dirty inventory’
- Optimization of capital and operational expenditure related to network assets
- Streamlined OSS processes via a single, trusted view of the network
- Enhanced root cause diagnosis and fault resolution
- Improved compliance with security policies
