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Discovery is the process of identifying, classifying, and
correlating the physical and logical assets of a communications
network. Discovery’s goal is to provide a precise snapshot
of assets—as they exist and function in the network—for
other business processes to utilize. Discovery is not, and
should not be confused with inventory or provisioning. A discovery
solution provides information that supports inventory; design,
assign and turn-up; and other business processes or application
functions.
Adaptability is critical when deploying new resources in
the network. Discovery must be able to recognize devices that
are known, as well as ones that are not known. Furthermore,
it must be easily extensible to account for new vendors, technologies,
device types, etc. without major software modifications. Six
to twelve month projects to add new devices and correlate
topological data structures penalize time-to-market for new
services and are intolerable. Adaptability is the key to managing
change and maintaining speed and efficiency.
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