Your network is the backbone of your business operations. A healthy, efficient, and secure network is a prerequisite for any modern business. But, the growing number of technologies and devices that businesses use render networks increasingly complex, making optimal performance and security a huge challenge. Despite these challenges, you need to be able to effectively manage and maintain your network and the solution lies in effective network management.
This blog post talks about what network management is, what it entails, why it is important for businesses, and some network management best practices to help you get started.
What Is Network Management?
Network management refers to a system consisting of processes, tools, and applications that help in the administration, operations, and maintenance of a network infrastructure. Network management systems collect and analyze network data based on which it applies configuration changes to maximize availability, improve network performance, and ensure reliability and network security.
Network management allows you to control the configurations and connectivity among devices in your network, including switches, routers, gateways, repeaters, etc. Apart from the hardware management, it also controls virtual nodes such as end-users and applications, including their digital connections and permissions.
What Does Network Management Involve?
Network management involves four board functions:
1. Network Provisioning
Network provisioning entails setting up the network and configuring devices and servers so that authorized users can access the network. It is essentially concerned with connectivity and user access, thus focuses on device and identity management.
2. Network Configuration
Network configuration is the process of defining and maintaining a network in a desired state. It involves assigning network settings, policies, and controls to maintain the network, track and report data, and make configuration changes. Network configuration includes router and switch configurations, firewall configuration, host configuration, as well as network topology control.
3. Network Security
Network security is the process of establishing security systems, policies, and controls to protect the network against unauthorized access, attacks, and harm. The goal of network security is to identify and remediate security threats as well as mitigate compliance risks.
4. Network Measurement
Network measurement consists of network monitoring, testing, and troubleshooting to ensure that availability, integrity, and security goals are met. Measuring network parameters helps you establish benchmarks, monitor performance, identify performance issues, and minimize downtime and network outages.
How Does Network Management Work?
A network management solution typically works by collecting key network performance indicators in real-time from the network and sending it to a centralized server, which can be on-premises or in the cloud. The collected data is then analyzed by a control application to give meaningful information to the engineers who can then make necessary changes to network devices such as switches, routers, access points, etc. The network devices send data to the server using either the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) or Telemetry.
Why Is Network Management Important For Businesses?
Business networks nowadays have to support many different devices, technologies, and high-value traffic. This growing complexity of networks makes it difficult to maintain high levels of network service and security without comprehensive infrastructure visibility and real-time data. Network Management systems help organizations deliver stable connectivity, consistent service levels, and more importantly enhanced security no matter the complexity of your network infrastructure.
For any business, effective network management has the following noticeable benefits:
Increased network efficiency
Reduced downtime and unplanned outages
Increased flexibility that allows for easier network modifications
What Are The Functional Areas Of Network Management?
Network Management is divided into the following five functional areas:
1. Fault Management
Fault management consists of identifying, isolating, and correcting network faults or problems such as errors in transmission, equipment, or interface to prevent unexpected downtime, performance breakdown, and loss of data. Fault management is arguably the most critical area of network management.
2. Configuration Management
Configuration management consists of identifying network components, their connections, collecting their configuration information, and defining the relationship between those components for effective initialization, modification, and shutdown of a network.
Networks constantly undergo modifications and alterations as devices are added, removed, or updated. Tracking and managing these changes manually is near impossible and configuration management tools allow easy device discovery, inventory maintenance, configuration backup, and monitoring changes to ensure security and compliance.
3. Performance Management
Performance management consists of measuring network performance to prevent network overcrowding and inaccessibility. The ultimate goal of performance management is to provide consistent levels of service to the end-users while making optimal use of device and link capacity. Network performance monitoring gives information on the health and performance of the various components of a network so that remedial measures can be taken in a timely manner.
4. Accounting Management
Accounting management refers to the tracking of network utilization by individuals or groups of users and regulating the usage based on company policies. This allows network resources to be allocated where it is most needed and helps reduce network congestion. The information collected for accounting management also helps in planning network growth.
5. Security Management
Security management is concerned with the overall security of the network and the data flowing within it. Security management is achieved through a well-designed network along with a robust security management system. It uses encryption and controls access and privileges based on company policies to ensure that no unauthorized user can gain network access.
What Are Network Management Best Practices?
Here are our network management best practices:
1. Understand Your Network
The first step in network management, network security, or anything network-related is to understand your network- how it is designed, set up, the devices connected, and how data flows within it. You need to gain a clear understanding of the following:
A thorough understanding of your network will enable you to build a strong and efficient network, quickly troubleshoot problems, develop effective security controls, and evaluate relevant third-party products.
2. Know Your Network Defenses
The next step is to gain an understanding of your network defenses, i.e. the security controls that are available and those that are already in place. We have discussed this in detail in an earlier blog post on network security basics.
3. Identify Critical Devices, Software, And Systems
Create a map of your network infrastructure highlighting the critical devices, systems, and software that form the network core. Include all the devices such as routers, switches, firewalls, servers, etc. on which your network operation depends. This will help you determine which components require the highest level of security and need to be operational to keep your business running.
4. Track The Devices And Users Accessing Your Network
To ensure optimal network performance, you need to provide the requisite bandwidth to your users and devices. Tracking network usage helps you identify bandwidth-eating technologies, devices, and users that siphon off a large portion of the bandwidth, causing sluggishness and connectivity problems for everyone else. Tracking the devices and users on your network also helps you detect if any untrusted or unauthorized device or user is accessing your network.
5. Know The Compliance Requirements For Your Network
Your network is the gateway to all of your company resources, devices, and data. Anyone with access to your network virtually has access to all of your business resources including the data. Therefore, it is only natural that the network comes under the biggest scrutiny when it comes to regulatory compliance and security audits. Knowing the compliance requirements of your business will help you set expectations and manage your network better.
If you would like to learn more about the compliance obligations of your business, here are a few of our guides:
6. Implement Network Security Best Practices
Network security best practices are tried and tested measures that help you establish a functional and effective security posture for dealing with common security threats. They enable you to quickly build network defenses that are good not just in the short term but can also be used in your long-term security strategy.
7. Create Redundancy To Avoid Potential Network Failures
Your business network is a complex architecture consisting of hundreds if not thousands of pieces of hardware, software, systems, and protocols. Like any other piece of equipment, network components are also liable to fail. And if a failure occurs in one of the core network components, it can result in an outage that can bring your entire business operations to a standstill.
Fortunately, you can mitigate the risk of network failures by creating network redundancy in components that are most likely to fail. Common examples include ISP connection, routing protocols, network hardware, etc. You can create redundancy by using failover solutions, load balancers, redundant power supplies, etc.
The redundancy is not just limited to the network and it also applies to data. Using the 3-2-1 strategy, you can build redundancy in your data storage as well. This strategy requires you to create 3 copies of your data stored on 2 different storage media, with 1 copy located off-site. This data redundancy safeguards your data from a wide range of data security risks.
Network Management Tools
There are many network management tools, both commercial and open-source, available in the market. Here are a few examples of network management software tools:
Cisco Network Assistant
Spiceworks Network Monitor
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor
Wireshark
WhatsUp Gold
Nagios XI
LogicMonitor
Lansweeper
Zabbix
Conclusion
Not knowing the state of your network puts you in a blind spot that is sure to lead to frequent connectivity issues, network outages, and downtime. To run an efficient, stable, and secure network, you will need a deep understanding of your network, its components, devices, and users connecting to it, and the security risks it faces.
Given the complexity of modern networks, achieving all of that manually is near impossible. Therefore, network management solutions are a logical choice for any network administrator who wants to operate a high-performance and secure network with minimal downtime.
Is your network performing at optimal levels? Are your end-users getting the best network performance? Do you have complete visibility over your entire network infrastructure? Reach out to us by clicking the button below to learn how we can help you manage your network better and improve your network performance.
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About The Author
Hari SubediMarketing Manager at Jones IT
Hari is an online marketing professional with a focus on content marketing. He writes on topics related to IT, Security, Small Business, and Mindfulness. He is also the founder and managing director of Girivar Kft., a business services company located in Budapest, Hungary.