network asset manager

In 2003, one Wall Street financial company did an extensive study to identify and categorize the number of different network asset manager applications on its networks. It found more than 3000 discrete applications traversing its infrastructure. Further research has shown that this is not uncommon for larger enterprises. Therefore, because enterprises have several hundredif not thousands ofdata applications running over their networks (of which the majority default to the Best-Effort class), adequate bandwidth needs to be provisioned for this default class to handle the sheer volume of applications that are included in it. Otherwise, applications that default to this class easily are drowned out, typically resulting in an increased number of calls to the networking help desk from frustrated users. It is therefore recommended that at least 25 percent of a link's bandwidth be reserved for the default Best-Effort class.

The Bulk Data class is intended for applications that are relatively noninteractive and not drop sensitive, and that typically span their operations over a long period of time as background occurrences. Such applications include FTP, e-mail, backup operations, database synchronizing or replicating operations, video content distribution, and any other type of application in which users typically cannot proceed because they are waiting for the completion of the operation (in other words, network asset manager).