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Cisco Assurance Management Solution

Cisco Assurance Management Solution 1.0

Cisco® Assurance Management Solution (AMS) delivers service providers and large enterprises real-time centralized monitoring and root-cause analysis, integrated with Cisco Active Network Abstraction (ANA). Built using Cisco ANA and IBM Tivoli technologies, Cisco AMS provides the key building blocks for flexible deployment of end-to-end assurance management for complex, multivendor, multitechnology networks. Further, Cisco Advanced Services provides several prepackaged professional services to implement and tailor the deployment of Cisco AMS to your specific requirements.

New Features

Cisco AMS uses Cisco and IBM Tivoli technology to provide the following features and benefits:

• Root-Cause Analysis: Network faults are visualized with real-time analysis of the root cause, reducing the time needed to troubleshoot network issues. Consequential fault events are automatically correlated to the root-cause fault event in real time.

• Manager of Managers: This feature enables data from multiple tools to be managed under a single console in Cisco AMS, improving the effectiveness of the network operations environment.

• Real-time Management Views: Operations staff and executives have "anytime, anywhere" access to device and network status and actionable information. Highly customizable dashboards offer a wide range of images, maps, charts, tables, and event lists to help provide immediate visibility of the network status.

• Incremental Deployment: The solution is packaged to facilitate incremental use of Cisco AMS functions, integrated with Cisco ANA, to protect your investment in existing systems.

• Extensibility: Cisco AMS can easily be extended with the Layer 3 Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) VPN fault monitoring and service path tracing features of Cisco Service Fault Isolation. The solution can also easily be extended to include fault and assurance functions of Tivoli Netcool or Cisco Info Center.

Integration with Cisco ANA

The basis of Cisco AMS is the use of the breakthrough network mediation solution, Cisco ANA. Purchased separately, Cisco ANA is a next-generation platform designed to overcome the high costs and complexity associated with current operations support system (OSS) implementations.
Cisco ANA is a fully distributed OSS mediation platform that abstracts the network, its topology, and capabilities from the physical elements. It provides full visibility into the network topology, the services created on top of the networks, and the status of the whole system. By providing a common information model across physical network elements, the services those elements provide, and the network and its services, Cisco ANA provides a strong platform for service activation and provisioning, service assurance, and for network management itself.
The integration of Cisco ANA and Cisco AMS, implemented by Cisco Advanced Services, facilitates end-to-end service assurance with near real-time centralized monitoring and root-cause analysis of multivendor and multitechnology networks. By using the Cisco ANA platform and incorporating technology from the IBM Tivoli portfolio, Cisco AMS helps you manage IP-based services more effectively while dramatically reducing implementation and maintenance costs. You will be able to change and evolve network devices and configurations without having to change your service management and OSS applications.
The combination of Cisco ANA and Cisco AMS is available in a variety of deployment packages to help ensure a high degree of investment protection. If you currently use Cisco ANA, Cisco Info Center, or Tivoli Netcool, you can purchase only those new components you require.
Cisco AMS is integrated with and requires a separate license for all managed devices for Cisco ANA. Integration between Cisco ANA and Cisco AMS, implemented by Cisco Advanced Services, includes the following:

• A right-to to-use (RTU) license for network fault isolation features is shipped as part of Cisco ANA.

• Event and alarm and data collected by Cisco ANA is automatically forwarded to Cisco AMS for consolidation and correlation.

• Events and data collected by Cisco ANA are automatically displayed using the Cisco AMS Manager of Managers user interface

The Cisco AMS license requires that all Cisco AMS managed devices are also licensed for Cisco ANA.
Cisco AMS can be extended through a Cisco MPLS Service Fault Isolation add-on package to add:

• Logical inventory information specific to VPNs

• Discovery and monitoring of MPLS traffic engineering

• Discovery and monitoring of pseudowire end-to-end emulation tunnels

• Service impact analysis

• MPLS service view that allows users to drill down into specific VPNs and view information about the business elements contained in each VPN

• Multipath tracing capability using the PathTracer tool

Availability

Cisco AMS begins shipping on August 7, 2007. Ordering begins through normal Cisco sales channels as of July 13, 2007.

Ordering Information

For more information on Cisco AMS and ordering details, please contact the product marketing group at ask-ams@cisco.com or review the data sheet at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/netmgtsw/ps6504/ps8392/ps8408/ps8410/product_data_sheet0900aecd80685fb2.html.

For More Information

For more information about Cisco Assurance Management Solution, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/ams or contact your local Cisco account representative.