All companies are different, but the value of their network to their business varies little. In fact, as a business grows, its network grows not only in size and complexity, but also in significance and value. Very quickly, the network not only supports the company, it is the company. This is obvious for e-businesses and other entities that are
highly dependent on their website for driving revenues. Yet at its most basic and strategic level, the network is about collaboration, communication, and commerce - everything that keeps a business running and growing. It's where business applications are hosted, and where mission-critical customer, product, and business information
are stored.
THE VALUE OF NETWORK
MONITORING
Why It's Essential to Know Your Network
Sponsored by IpswitchI. Introduction
All companies are different, but the value of their network to their business varies little. In fact, as a business grows, its network grows not only in size and complexity, but also in significance and value. Very quickly, the network not only supports the company, it is the company. This is obvious for e-businesses and other entities that are highly dependent on their website for driving revenues. Yet at its most basic and strategic level, the network is about collaboration, communication, and commerce - everything that keeps a business running and growing. It's where business applications are hosted, and where mission-critical customer, product, and business information are stored.
With a resource this valuable, ensuring its availability is essential. It's also challenging because of threats such as hackers, denial of service attacks, viruses, and information theft, all of which can lead to downtime, loss of data, and overall decreasing credibility and profitability. Additionally, the network is evolving drastically, with new technologies, devices, and strategies, such as virtualization and service-oriented architectures. That's why network management is such an important function and capability for businesses of all sizes. If your business depends on your network, then network management is critical.
Network management is a broad functional area incorporating device monitoring, application management, security, ongoing maintenance, service levels, troubleshooting, planning, and other tasks - ideally all coordinated and overseen by an experienced and reliable network administrator. Yet even the most knowledgeable and capable network administrator is only as good as the network information that is visible, and that he or she can manage and act on. Administrators need to know what's happening on their networks at all times, including real-time and historical information on usage, performance, and status of every device, application, and all data on the network.
This is the domain of network monitoring, the most critical function of network management. The only way to know if everything on your network is operating as it should is to monitor it continuously. This paper describes the importance of network monitoring in maintaining the availability of an organization's network, with a goal of enabling readers to make informed decisions.
II. Know Your Network
Today's networks can be astounding in their complexity. Routers, switches, and hubs link the multitude of workstations to critical applications on myriad servers and to the Internet. In addition, there are numerous security and communications utilities and applications installed, including firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs), and spam and virus filters. These technologies span all verticals and companies of all sizes. Network management, therefore, is not confined to only certain industries or solely to large, public companies.
Understanding the composition and complexity of your network, and having the capacity to be informed of how all the individual elements are performing at any given time, is a key success factor in maintaining the performance and
THE VALUE OF NETWORK MONITORING integrity of the network - and often of the business - as a whole. There are potentially thousands of data points to monitor on a network, and it is critical to be able to access meaningful, accurate, and current information at any given time. Network administrators need to feel confident that they know what's happening on their network from end to end at any given point in time. It is critical to "know your network" at all times.
A network is no longer a monolithic structure. It includes the Internet, local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), virtual LANS (VLANS), wireless networks, and all of the devices, servers, and applications that run on them. Whatever enables users to access and share information, utilize applications, and communicate with each other and with the outside world - either through voice, data, or images - is, in essence, your network.
A network typically has both internal and external users, including employees, customers, partners, and other stakeholders. Suboptimal network performan... [download for more]
