Network design was at one time focused on providing the most efficient networks custom tailored to specific needs. Today, however, network design uses a building-block approach. Well-designed networks use a few common, standardized, network technologies over and over again throughout the network even though they might provide more capacity than needed. Under ideal circumstances, the organization will develop deep relationships with a very small set of vendors.
Akamai Speeds Up Ticketmaster
MANAGEMENT FOCUS
Ticketmaster is one of the largest online sellers of tickets in the world and one of the busiest sites on the Internet when tickets for certain events go on sale. On peak days, Ticketmaster serves 10 million page views, with most of that occurring within a 45-minute period. Ticketmaster’s Online-Citysearch is a related portal that provides in-depth content for more than 30 metropolitan areas around the United States. San Francisco, for example, has 40,000 pages of information.
Both parts of Ticketmaster use the Akamai content delivery service. Since implementing the service, Ticketmaster has seen a 50-percent reduction in download times and a 40-percent reduction in the load on Ticketmaster’s own servers and switches. Ticketmaster was able to prevent a $1 million addition to its own Web site.
Users have noticed the difference too. The number of page views and average duration of a visit has increased by 70 percent. This means that the number of advertisements displayed to users has increased 70 percent as well, thus providing a noticeable increase in advertising revenue.
As the cost to operate and maintain networks gradually becomes more expensive than the cost to purchase network technologies in the first place, good network design commonly results in the purchase of more expensive equipment in order to save significantly more money in reduced network management costs over the life of the network. While there is a temptation to go with the lowest bidder and buy inexpensive equipment, in many cases this can significantly increase the lifecycle cost of a network. The use of sophisticated network design tools and network management tools has become a key part of almost all new networks installed today.
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Traditional Network Design The traditional network design approach follows a very structured systems analysis and design process similar to that used to build application systems. It attempts to develop precise estimates of network traffic for each network user and network segment. Although this is expensive and time consuming, it works well for static or slowly evolving networks. Unfortunately, computer and networking technology is changing very rapidly, the growth in network traffic is immense, and hardware and circuit costs are relatively less expensive than they used to be. Therefore, use of the traditional network design approach is decreasing. Building-Block Approach to Network Design The building-block approach attempts to build the network using a series of simple predefined building components, resulting in a simpler design process and a more easily managed network built with a smaller range of components. The basic process involves three steps that are performed repeatedly. Needs analysis involves developing a logical network design that includes the geographic scope of the network and a categorization of current and future network needs of the various network segments, users, and applications as either typical or high traffic. The next step, technology design, results in a set of one or more physical network designs. Network design and simulation tools can play an important role in selecting the technology that typical and high-volume users, applications, and network segments will use. The final step, cost assessment, gathers cost information for the network, usually through an RFP that specifies what equipment, software, and services are desired and asks vendors to provide their best prices. One of the keys to gaining acceptance by senior management of the network design lies in speaking management’s language (cost, network growth, and reliability), not the language of the technology (Ethernet, ATM, and DSL).
Designing for Performance Network management software is critical to the design of reliable, high-performance networks. Device management software provides statistics about device utilizations and issues alerts when problems occur. System management software provides the same information, but also provides analysis and diagnosis to help the network manager make better decisions. Small networks often use device management software, while larger, more complex networks often use system management software. SNMP and CMIP are a common standard for network management software and the managed devices that support it. Load balancing devices shift network traffic among servers in a server farm to ensure that no one server is overloaded with traffic. Content caching and content delivery are commonly used to reduce network traffic.
