This document discusses conducting a "Reconnaissance Check" of a company's telecommunications infrastructure to identify opportunities to improve operations and lower costs. It states that thorough reconnaissance can uncover multiple factors representing 35% or more in potential savings. The document advocates using techniques from military intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to understand network traffic flows, bottlenecks, services, and market prices in order to optimize the network configuration and carrier contracts. Quantitative metrics should be established to measure the network's performance and identify outliers that may indicate inefficiencies.

1. The Reconnaissance Check
Assessing the operation and co$ts of your Telecommunications Infrastructure
How maintaining Situational Awareness will
improve operations and lower co$ts

2. Benefits of the “Reconnaissance Check”
• There are numerous benefits of conducting a
thorough Reconnaissance Check of your
Telecommunications Environment.
• We will uncover multiple factors representing
opportunities to wage a successful engagement
to make your telecommunications environment
“work better and cost less”
1

3. Recovered Value of over 35%!!
2

4. What is more complex?
3

5. Controlling a battlefield
4

6. Managing a Voice & Data network
5

7. Both Have …
High Degree of Risk
(Casualties vs. service interruptions and huge $ums of money)
Extreme Number of Variables
Highly trained specialists
Coordination of many highly complex tasks and people
6

8. Our specialist in Intelligence,
Surveillance, and Reconnaissance
(ISR) know the procedures and
how to connect the dots to
understand your voice and data
environment
7

9. Understanding the “Field of Battle”
• Important details about your network
behaviors allow our analysts to determine the
actual:
– Traffic Flows
– Bottlenecks
– Carrier Services in place
– Available Market Prices for carrier services
8

10. Understanding the “Field of Battle”
• Even though every network is highly unique,
certain well defined constants prevail:
– Traffic can be modeled
– Trouble spots can be detected
– Carrier Services Vary
– Carrier Prices Vary
• Converting Network Surveillance, and
Reconnaissance into Intelligence is our
specialty
9

11. It all starts with assessing the
current environment
10

12. And the military
has evolved powerful methods to bring
Battlefield Command and Control down
to a measurable science
11

13. You can never have too much reconnaissance.
General George S. Patton Jr.,
• Reconnaissance operations are those
operations undertaken to obtain, by visual
observation or other detection methods,
information about the activities and
resources of an enemy or potential enemy,
or to secure data concerning the
meteorological, hydrographical or
geographical characteristics and the
indigenous population of a particular area.
12

14. We use similar Intelligence, Surveillance,
Reconnaissance (ISR) techniques in an
activity that synchronizes and integrates the
planning and operation of sensors, assets,
and processing, exploitation, and
dissemination systems in direct support of
current and future operations. This is an
integrated intelligence and operations
function.
13

15. ISR as applied to Voice & Data Infrastructures
• Surveillance is the systematic observation of network elements, by
various means.
• Reconnaissance is a mission undertaken to obtain, by surveillance,
information about the activities and resources of a network, or to
secure data concerning the dynamic characteristics of a particular
network.
• Intelligence is (1) the product resulting from the collection, processing,
integration, analysis, evaluation, and interpretation of available
information concerning a voice and data network; (2) information and
knowledge about a problem obtained through observation,
investigation, analysis, or understanding.
14

16. You Can’t Manage, What You Don’t Measure
• Qualitative vs. Quantitative Data Collection
• Like snapshots of the Field of Battle, we must collect
information on every asset (qualitative)
– Location
– Purpose
– Configuration
– Operational Status
• We must also collect information on its performance
levels (quantitative)
– Usage Levels
– Efficiency
– Capabilities
15

17. Typical Roles and Responsibilities
• Network Support groups focus their attention
on day to day operations (tactical)
• This needs to be augmented by an Intelligence,
Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) effort
to provide the strategic component necessary
for long term efficiency and co$t management.
• This relies heavily on quantitative as well as
qualitative “Intelligence” gathering.
16

18. Mission Importance
• Questions to consider:
– “Do I have the best network configuration to carry
out the mission of the business?”
– Am I using the most appropriate products from the
carriers?
– Am I getting the best pricing available in the
market place?
17

19. Reducing telecommunications costs
(without compromising performance
and functionality) is a daily concern for
many CEOs and CFOs
18

20. No Risk to You!
• Pressures on the IT and Telecom Managers will only increase
• These managers will look to analytics to improve the
operational and financial aspects of their networks
• Some managers are looking for management methods to rein
in costs and add budget predictability.
• It is still important to ensure the underlying assumptions have
a solid foundation of efficient spend.
• In the end, Analytics Matter and our ISR methods have a
proven track record of success with no risk on your part
• We only collect a fee on the savings, if we can’t find anything,
you don’t pay anything!
19

21. Establishing the proper metrics
• All networks exhibit behaviors which can be measured,
observed and analyzed for particular “signatures” of
significant events.
• It comes down knowing what to look for and how to recognize
it when it is present.
• That is, what should be monitored and analyzed as part of the
ISR process?
• It is not possible to “manage” or control a network without
specific quantitative goals expressed in realistic metrics.
• Further, it is not possible to manage the operations of a
network without meaningful quantitative feedback which can
be interpreted in terms of the “goals” mentioned above.
20

22. The ISR Process
• Our engagements include a review of the architecture,
technology, business goals, performance levels, and carrier
services.
• Determines if the environment is “optimized” for the mission
and if there are alternative in any of the architecture,
technology or carrier services which meet the requirements of
the business and leverage the changing market place of
technologies and services available.
• The resulting quantitative model of the environment produces
the metrics (e.g. telecom costs, traffic analysis, utilization
levels, error rates, etc.) used to identify problem areas as well
as the current market price/performance levels.
• We can move forward with alternative solutions to achieve
better price/performance levels. 21

23. What to expect!
• You get a complete “Intelligence” report based
on the Surveillance and Reconnaissance
actions.
• This report will provide tremendous insight
into the inner workings of your
telecommunications environment from a
qualitative and quantitative perspective
including financial analysis presented in
graphical form.
22

24. Important Insights
• With quantitative analysis, the key is to
identify an acceptable operational level and
then highlight the extreme outliers.
• Some outliers can be reasonably explained,
while others will be clear inefficiencies.
• Focus on the unjustified outliers and eliminate
them from the system.
23

25. How We Do It
• The secret sauce is the Intelligence (analytics)
that turns Surveillance and Reconnaissance
actions into useful information presenting you
with a comprehensive view of the “Field of
Battle”, i.e. your complete telecom
environment.
• The quantitative model of your telecom
environment is the key to making strategic
decisions for tactical results, i.e. works better,
costs less! 24

26. What Qualitative or Quantitative “Intelligence” should
be monitored?
• Surveillance and Reconnaissance data
• Turns into “Intelligence” when properly
analyzed
• Consider the following metrics:
– Application Performance
– Market Dynamics
– Traffic Volumes/Throughput
– Latency
– Etc.
25

27. Connecting the Dots
0.0
200.0
400.0
600.0
800.0
1,000.0
1,200.0
1,400.0
1,600.0
Amherst
Atlanta
BrooklynCenter
CedarFalls
Chandler
Charleston
Charlotte
Columbus
Dallas
Greensboro
Houston
LakeSuccess
Miramar
Oceanside
Phoenix
Plymouth
St.LouisPark
WestPalmBeach
WestLakeVillage(CV)
WestLakeVillage(RR)
kbps
Location
Receive-Throughput
Average-Primary Average-Secondary Peak-Primary Peak-Secondary
26

28. Observations
• No receive “Load Balancing” at St. Louis
Park
– Little or no traffic on Secondary T1
• Disproportionate Load Balancing at West
Lake Village
27

29. Connecting the Dots
0.0
200.0
400.0
600.0
800.0
1000.0
1200.0
1400.0
1600.0
Amherst
Atlanta
BrooklynCenter
CedarFalls
Chandler
Charleston
Charlotte
Columbus
Dallas
Greensboro
Houston
LakeSuccess
Miramar
Oceanside
Phoenix
Plymouth
St.LouisPark
WestPalmBeach
WestLakeVillage(CV)
WestLakeVillage(RR)
kbps
Location
Transmit-Throughput
Average-Primary Average-Secondary Peak-Primary Peak-Secondary
28

30. Observations
• No Outbound Load Balancing at Brooklyn
Center
– No Traffic on Secondary T1
29

31. Warning Signs
• Some signs can be indicative of a larger
problem
• Are you inside or outside of the “Operational
Envelope”?
• With quantitative analysis, the key is to
identify an acceptable values and then
highlight the extreme outliers.
30

32. Operational Envelope©MSI-2014
-0.10
0.10
0.30
0.50
0.70
0.90
1.10
1.30
Bandwidth
Availability
Response Time
Utilization% Packet Loss
Errors
Discards
Operational Envelope©MSI-2004
SLA
Average (Actual)
MAX (Actual)
31

33. What is the “Intelligence” telling you?
• Some of the data can be reasonably explained while others will
be clear inefficiencies.
• How do you tell the difference?
• Focus on the real “signatures” of inefficiencies and remove the
underlying cause with extreme prejudice.
• What signatures matter?
• Again, each problem has its own signature but an image will
emerge when we take seeming unrelated Surveillance and
Reconnaissance information and look at all of it in one view
revealing the nature of the interactions.
32

34. Does this sound like a lot of work?
• Our Knight Vision™ methods and analytical
tools removes the burden and produces
tangible measurable results.
• As your partner we participate in the
implementation of the “Best Practices” to
ensure the savings are realized.
33

35. Best Practices
• Define Key Metrics for continued
“Surveillance”
• Meet bi-annually with internal representatives
to review continuous “Reconnaissance”
reports of important metrics.
• Using the synthesized “Intelligence” determine
the need for any strategic changes.
– Continuously monitor the “Field of Battle
– Continuously monitor the market place for
alternative technologies and service providers
34

36. What “metrics” should you use to identify
potential, co$tly, behaviors?
35

37. Market Place Dynamics
$469
$445
$379
$473
$453
$423
$650
$550
$504
$369 $359 $349
$540
$520
$450
$0
$100
$200
$300
$400
$500
$600
$700
12 Months 24 Months 36 Months
$/month
Contract Term
Internet Access Costs by Provider
One Comm Verizon Broadview Earthlink One Comm Direct
36

38. Traffic Volumes
0.0%
50.0%
100.0%
150.0%
200.0%
250.0%
0.0
1,000.0
2,000.0
3,000.0
4,000.0
5,000.0
6,000.0
7,000.0
8,000.0
Cambridge,MA
(MPLS)
Cambridge,MA
(Internet)
Houston,TX(MPLS)
Houston,TX
(Internet)
Reading,UK
(MPLS)
Reading,UK
(Internet)
Shanghai,CH
(MPLS)
Shanghai,CH
(Internet)
Utilization%
kbps
Sites
Traffic Volumes by Site
Port Speed Peak Usage Average Usage Average Utilization Peak Utilization
37

39. Recovered Value of over 35%!!
38

40. Business Benefits of Performance Management
• Aligns the IT infrastructure with business
processes
• Allows business processes to become more
competitive and responsive to changing customer
needs.
• Reduces network expenses and provides
information necessary to “manage” your providers
(SLAs).
• Improves efficiency and productivity from higher
network and application availability
• Improves IT staff productivity by reducing the
time required to resolve problems
39

41. Business Benefits of Performance Management
• Substantial ROI and savings
• Allows you to do more with less
• IT infrastructure is a critical business asset
• Requires performance management of the
infrastructure and applications
• Potential to trim Monthly Recurring Costs
by over 30%, while maintaining required
level of service.
40

42. Savings fall right to the bottom line!
41

43. Business Benefits of Performance Management
• C-level executives require high-level reports on
how the IT resources are performing over time.
• While operational managers need more detailed
accounts of how all of the manageable network
components are performing so problems can be
identified, diagnosed and corrected.
• Converged networks (VoIP, Unified Messaging,
etc.) create an even bigger challenge.
• Requires real-time monitoring and management of
application availability and QoS.
42

44. Reconnaissance Matters!
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