The new product adds network management to a competitive line of routers that's engineered in the USA and priced lower than much of the competition.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [December 15, 2008]

Today, Huntsville, Ala.-based ADTRAN is announcing its n-Command MSP product, designed to help MSPs, VARs, and ISPs manage large networks.

The product is designed to be easy to use. It's web-based and runs on an ADTRAN NetVenta 450 server (250 GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM). One server can manage thousands of devices.

The n-Command MSP product has the following other features:

Auto device discovery: ADTRAN CPE initiates requests so that firewalls don't block traffic between the n-Command server and the devices being managed. The ISP simply sets the IP address of the n-Command server in the device it's installing on a customer's network, and the device checks in regularly (default: every six hours).

VoIP Quality Monitoring (VQM). n-Command measures a wide variety of statistics including MOS, delay, jitter, and packet loss. ISP staff can drill down to find and address problems on specific calls. The CPE generates a SIP message at the completion of every call, and that message is stored by n-Command.

But the best feature of this product is the interface itself. If you're looking at this product, be sure to get a demo of the interface.

Here's a screen shot showing the data the system stores concerning one specific device:

As you can see, the system can be used by anyone. "It's all tabbed browsing," says Jaime Britnell, product manager for n-Command. "It's easy to track new variables by adding new columns to a chart. All information can be expanded. Data can be exported in .csv files. You can nest filters or searches."

The system also helps service providers manage people by keeping track of jobs. "You can notify people within your own company, and you can notify the appropriate people at your customer company," says Britnell. "You can schedule updates to roll out over time, rather than pushing them out all at once. Since devices check in every six hours after they're turned in, the times roll more or less randomly."

"Also, it's easy to downgrade to a previous version of firmware or to restore an old config. You don't have to do anything manually to get the old configs because they're all stored in n-Command. This backup capability, I think, is a very strong aspect of this device."

Pricing and availability
The n-Comand MSP is available today, at a list price starting at $8,995 that includes the NetVanta 450 hardware and one year of maintenance.

The license price is based on the number of devices under management, with a volume discount. The software can tell you what your annual fee will be at any time. "This is the only product we sell that fits this mold," says Ralph Snider, director of ADTRAN's enterprise marketing edition. He points out that service provider networks change in size rapidly and that most enterprise networks do not, so the pricing scheme is designed to allow ISPs to pay for what they use.

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