Fluke Networks Case Study

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Introduction
Situation
Solution
Key features in Visio
Benefits

Introduction

Fluke Networks already had the technology for analyzing switched networks and providing connectivity details for network devices. What they didn't have was a quick way of representing this information visually for their busy IT customers. After investigating their options, the developers at Fluke Networks learned that they could feed their network data programmatically to Microsoft® Visio® and create detailed network connectivity maps. Now they had a complete solution. Using Visio as a development platform, Fluke Networks created a working prototype for their new product in less than three months. 

Situation

A leader in electronic testing and instrumentation devices since 1948, Fluke Corporation provides essential troubleshooting and diagnostic support to manufacturing and service professionals. To respond more quickly to its growing communications network market, Fluke spun off its network business, Fluke Networks, in May 2000. This new company addresses the needs of computer network owners and operators by providing everything from cable testing products to broadband data services equipment. Their mission is to be the leader in the installation, maintenance, documentation, monitoring, and analysis of communications networks.

"We really want to grow our software business and, at the same time, make it more integrated with our network analyzers," explained Scott Straight, Project Manager. Their first software product to integrate with Visio, Network Inspector™, monitors Ethernet local area networks (LAN) and diagnoses problems wherever they occur—on the server, client, switch, router, or printer. The latest product in their software line is LAN MapShot™, a network mapping tool.

The network documentation dilemma

Fluke Networks understood the difficulties that IT professionals face in maintaining complex networks comprised of hundreds of interconnected devices. When network problems occur in a multi-user environment, rapid troubleshooting is absolutely vital. IT professionals must know where devices are located, and to know that, they need detailed network documentation.

Fluke Networks already had the technology to map switched networks automatically, but a long list of device IP addresses didn't offer a complete picture. They hoped to provide a fast and reliable solution that would show devices and their connections—in extensive, visual detail.

Build or buy tradeoff

Fluke Networks weighed the advantages of creating their own network diagramming interface—a task associated with steep research and development costs—against the cost of acquiring an existing diagramming solution. "We were kicking around the idea of developing one ourselves," explained Tim Wittwer, Senior Software Engineer. However, it quickly became obvious that the cost-effective choice was to partner with someone who offered a tool that could provide a diagramming interface for their products.

In May 1999, Wittwer attended Networld+Interop, the premier gathering of networking, telecommunications, and Internet professionals in the world. Wittwer learned that Visio, with its extensive library of network shapes and automated tools, was a leader in the network diagramming market. "I looked at a number of other graphic tools," Wittwer noted, but he returned to Visio, which provided everything Fluke Networks needed and more.

"It proved to be a good decision," Straight said. "Just about every survey we've done showed that our customers already have Visio."

"I think it was a thrifty decision as well," Wittwer added. Not only could Fluke Networks spare the expense of building a custom diagramming engine, they could appeal to the existing Visio customer base. In addition, Fluke Networks knew they would benefit from Visio's strong brand recognition in the IT market.

Solution

Both Network Inspector™ and LAN MapShot™ are built on the Microsoft Visio platform and rely on Visio to provide a diagramming interface for their users. Network Inspector uses Visio to diagram network interconnections and infrastructure, and LAN MapShot uses Visio to create hierarchical network maps complete to the slot:port level of detail.

Many people who recognize Visio as a diagramming tool are surprised to discover that it is a full-featured development platform as well. "We used Visio for flowcharting, business presentations, and things like that," Wittwer explained, "but we didn't do any Visio automation prior to Network Inspector 4."

Wittwer discovered that Visio exposed its object model to programmers through a well-documented Automation interface. "The object model is very well laid out," Wittwer said. The object model represents the objects, properties, methods, and events that Visio makes available to programmers. Just about anything Visio can do, a developer can do programmatically. And that fact puts a wealth of powerful diagramming features into a developer's hands.

The Visio object model enabled Wittwer and his team to develop the all-important visual component for Network Inspector and LAN MapShot.

Figure 1 Fluke Networks LAN MapShot

The Draw New Map button starts Visio and creates a detailed network diagram that shows each device within one broadcast domain on a switched Ethernet network.

Rapid development with Visio

Fluke Networks designed LAN MapShot to work with any version of Visio that their customers already owned—Visio 5 and higher. A Microsoft Certified Partner, Fluke Networks was a significant participant in the Microsft Visio 2002 Rapid Deployment Program, which gave their development team access to pre-released versions of Visio so they could develop in tandem with the Microsoft team. As part of the program, Fluke Networks programmers were able to talk to Microsoft developers, receive preferential technical support, and provide early feedback on the Visio 2002 product.

Although they initially designed LAN MapShot to work with Visio 2000, the stability of the Visio object model meant that little work was required to update their product for Visio 2002 and take advantage of the new developer and end-user enhancements. "As long as the Automation interface doesn't change, our product should work," Wittwer said. "The only change we had to make to support Visio 2002 involved reading the Windows® system registry to find the installation location."

Key features in Visio

The Automation interface in Visio gave Fluke Networks a powerful, reliable, and easy-to-use drawing platform for their network mapping products. However, Visio offered added benefits for the Fluke Networks customers.

Network Inspector and LAN MapShot use Visio to create an easy-to-understand network diagram that is also easy to update. "Once they get a drawing, people can edit and modify it easily," said Wittwer. "They already know how to do it, because to them it's just another Visio drawing." Visio is known for an extensive library of pre-defined SmartShapes® symbols, including shapes that look like common network devices. The network shapes became the foundation of Fluke Networks' visual software strategy. "People want those shapes," Wittwer said. "Users want that level of detail."

Another critical consideration for Fluke Networks was output. Their users needed to print their network maps no matter how large the drawing, and Visio is designed to support a wide variety of paper sizes, plotters, and printers. "We got a lot of functionality for free by integrating," Wittwer noted.

Figure 2 Router Connections in a Switched Network

LAN MapShot uses Visio to create a connected diagram using network shapes that represent the switches, servers, hubs, and routers on a network.

Network maps on the Web

Fluke Networks also knew that their customers commonly posted network documentation on intranet sites. "A lot of our customers are generating diagrams and saving them as HTML," Wittwer explained. "The diagrams get published to their Web site so they can check network topology from anywhere on their intranet."

The fact that Visio supports Web publishing with the simple Save As Web command was a key consideration for Fluke Networks. "The cool thing is we didn't have to write any sort of Web publishing or exporting to JPEG or bitmaps. That's all internal to Visio," Wittwer said.

Visio 2002 provides full import and export support for common print and online graphic formats, including BMP, TIFF, EPS, and PICT formats, as well as Web-compatible JPEG and GIF files. The Save As Web command can even export and display the data associated with shapes. For example, if network equipment shapes include custom properties, such as manufacturer and inventory information, Visio can display that data with the network diagram as a Web page.

In addition, developers of custom Visio solutions can add cross-product interoperability by saving Visio diagrams in an XML-based file format. Many enterprise systems now exchange information in this increasingly popular format. Developers can use Automation interface calls to manage XML-based Visio files just as they would make calls to drawing files in Visio format.

Easy-to-use developer tools

The open architecture of Visio 2002 provides unprecedented flexibility to programmers who want to customize and automate Visio. Programmers can integrate Visio 2002 into other applications using Microsoft® Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA) 6.3, which is built into Visio, or another language such as Microsoft Visual Basic, or Microsoft Visual C++®.

"We chose Visual C++ so we wouldn't have to maintain multiple languages and to stay within our team's area of expertise," explained Wittwer.

To learn about developing on the Visio platform, the Fluke Networks team relied on the Visio Developer Reference online Help and the resources of the Visio Developer Center on MSDN. "I hadn't used Visio automation prior to Network Inspector 4, so I didn't know that much about it," Wittwer said. "We went from absolutely nothing—having never worked with any of the automation—to having a working prototype in under three months."

Benefits

Through the Rapid Deployment Program and the Microsoft Certified Partner program, Fluke Networks formed a relationship with Microsoft to develop new products on the Visio platform for the growing IT/network market. Because they didn't have to develop a graphical, network-mapping solution entirely on their own, Fluke Networks was able to bring their product to market very quickly.

Teaming with the customer segment leader had other advantages as well. Visio offered an installed base of millions of customers. "There was a very big space for us right away," explained Lisa Schwartz, Product Manager. Their own surveys told Fluke Networks that the customers they most wanted to reach already were users of Visio. For Fluke Networks, Visio was simply the most efficient, cost-effective choice for a development platform. "All the basic things you take for granted, they're just there," Wittwer noted, citing printing and Web publishing support particularly. "Otherwise, we'd have to write it ourselves or work with another third party it do it."

Although Wittwer and his teammates didn't start out to become expert developers of Visio, they found out that that it wasn't really necessary anyway. They were able to deliver a working prototype in under three months and deliver their LAN MapShot product in record time.

"It was really a piece of cake," Wittwer said, "but don't tell my manager!"

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