Faults can be defined as any failure or outage in the network.  These can be system or service related and often times are masked as a downstream product of a combination of the two.  Proactive fault analysis is an essential component of network management deployment. The same type of data that is collected for performance management can be used for proactive fault analysis. However, the timing and use of this data is different between proactive fault management and performance management.

Proactive fault management is the way that the ideal network management system can achieve the goals you determined. This mutual connection to performance management is through the baseline and the data variables that you are using. Proactive fault management is the conceptual area that ties together fault, performance, and change management in an ideal, effective network management system by integrating customized events, an event correlation engine, trouble ticketing, and the statistical analysis of the baseline data. 

Network Fault Management Elements to consider