CMIP vs. SNMP : Network Management Imagine yourself as a network administrator, responsible for a 2000 user network. This network reaches from California to New York, and some branches over seas. In this situation, anything can, and usually does go wrong, but it would be your job as a system administrator to resolve the problem with it arises as quickly as possible. The last thing you would want is for your boss to call you up, asking why you haven't done anything to fix the 2 major systems that have been down for several hours. How do you explain to him that you didn't even know about it? Would you even want to tell