Chris Dunne

Chris Dunne, technology support manager at Compuware, suggested that blaming the network isn't constructive.

"Walk into any IT department and they'll tell you that the network is the one thing people continually complain about," he said."If email goes down, people blame the network; if a CRM application is unresponsive, it's the network's fault.It's the easiest thing to blame."

Dunne maintained that network management has evolved to take onboard the increased expectations of the applications running across it.

"You can no longer manage the network in isolation; you need to manage it in unison with applications," he explained."Network managers need to think about giving priority to traffic from certain applications and to consider the impact that network performance has on business processes."

Dunne cited telephony as a dedicated network that has become just another application requiring expert support.

"Network managers need to manage telephony as an application and ensure that it has the necessary bandwidth to allow people to make calls without any reliability issues," he said.

The layering of applications on top of the network causes blame to fall on the common denominator.Dunne pointed out that, when complaining, it's good to remember that it's not always the network at fault.

"Often it can be a problem with a database or application," he said.

Chris Dunne, Compuware

Chris Dunne, Compuware

Chris Dunne, technology manager, Compuware

Chris Dunne, technology support manager at Compuware, suggested that blaming the network isn't constructive.

"Walk into any IT department and they'll tell you that the network is the one thing people continually complain about," he said."If email goes down, people blame the network; if a CRM application is unresponsive, it's the network's fault.It's the easiest thing to blame."

Dunne maintained that network management has evolved to take onboard the increased expectations of the applications running across it.

"You can no longer manage the network in isolation; you need to manage it in unison with applications," he explained."Network managers need to think about giving priority to traffic from certain applications and to consider the impact that network performance has on business processes."

Dunne cited telephony as a dedicated network that has become just another application requiring expert support.

"Network managers need to manage telephony as an application and ensure that it has the necessary bandwidth to allow people to make calls without any reliability issues," he said.

The layering of applications on top of the network causes blame to fall on the common denominator.Dunne pointed out that, when complaining, it's good to remember that it's not always the network at fault.

"Often it can be a problem with a database or application," he said.