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In real life, most situations are not commutative: the order in which we make them matters (try a cooking recipe in reverse order: you'll see your guests' reaction…). So we can wonder if this is the case for enterprise network operations.

Of course, as defenders of Autonomic Networking and Objective-based management's Top-Down approach for application performance management, we are convinced that the answer is NO: performance objectives have to be at the root of the entire process, traffic policies and fine-tuning being only consequences. But, may be should we challenge this point of view?

Asking WolframAlpha was not that helpful. So we decided to experience Google translation tools, which provided the following results:

(English) Does the order in which network operations are performed impact the user experience? à (French) Est-ce que l'ordre dans lequel l'exploitation du réseau sont effectuées l'impact de l'expérience utilisateur? à (Japanese)これで、ネットワーク運用への影響、ユーザー体験を実施しているためですか？à (Turkish) Ağ operasyonlar Bu etki, ya da kullanıcı deneyimi için uygulanıyor? à פעולות רשת, האפקט הזה, או מיושמים על חווית המשתמש? (Hebrew) à (English) Network operations, this effect, or applied to the user experience?

Actually, this was not that bad for such a complex translation trip. So we decided to perform the same journey in the reverse direction to see if we can reach our starting point:

(English) Network operations, this effect, or applied to the user experience? à פעולות הרשת, את האפקט הזה, או להחיל את חוויית הגלישה (Hebrew) à (Turkish) Ağ işlemleri, bu etkiyi veya tarama deneyimi geçerlidir? à (Japanese) ネットワーク操作は、この効果が有効かブラウジング体験？à (French) Réseau d'exploitation, cet effet est expérience de navigation en cours de validité? à (English) Network operation, this effect is browsing experience valid?

Although not a complete disaster, we definitely lose the meaning of the initial question. At least we can conclude that Google translations (and likely any translations) are not commutative at all. So we have to resign ourselves to the reality: order matters, and even with network and application performance management, goals have to come before consequences…

(I make it short as we have to prepare our Global Wan governance webcast, which will take place on Thursday September 14^th, 2009. Would you like to attend, you'll find all details here).

(Illustration: Maciejowski Tower of Babel construction)