An enterprise network doesn’t usually grow in an orderly, planned fashion. In the real world, enterprise networks expand in bursts through mergers and acquisitions or they grow organically to keep pace with new products. Companies may extend their networks according to their budget cycles, installing new technologies to meet users’ changing needs.

A large network might begin as a homogenous environment. Switches, routers, servers, and wireless access points can all be from the same vendor and use the same network management software. But as the network expands, it can get equipment from a variety of manufacturers—each with its own set of network management tools. A single manufacturer might even have multiple versions of its network management software. It’s this increasing network management complexity that bogs down IT. A network manager may need to be proficient with several different management tools to keep the enterprise up and running reliably.