🥊Unveiling the Limitations of Conventional Network Monitoring | The Quest for Operational Excellence 🥇

In the realm of Information Technology (IT), Operations Technology (OT), and Cybersecurity, the conventional modes of monitoring have faltered to deliver proactive, efficient, and practical measures to address downtime and outages. The standard operating procedures of Network Operations Centres (NOCs) and Security Operations Centres (SOCs) often operate reactively, relying on incoming calls or emails without robust proactive measures. This deficiency is further compounded by manual device management using command-line interfaces (CLI) or rudimentary device management pages.

Monitoring Uptime & Its Limitations

The monitoring of uptime, typically depicted through a Red, Amber, and Green (RAG) tool, offers insight but not productive value. What makes the situation worse is that fundamental protocols like SNMP and ICMP, crucial for monitoring, are often disabled by cybersecurity teams, rendering network devices virtually invisible. The classic head in the sand problem. Surprisingly, expensive business-grade monitoring tools do not significantly outperform cheaper or free alternatives available on open-source platforms like GitHub.

Re-imagining Downtime Management

The true value lies not in simply reporting downtime percentages but in garnering actionable insights from outages. It is imperative to comprehend the specific services impacted, ascertain the business repercussions, understand prevailing conditions during outages, document resolutions, identify proximate and root causes, allocate resources, classify and prioritize outages, and assess risk and mitigation strategies. The current reported metrics which often aren't correct or available fail to address these critical aspects.

Redefining Monitoring Tool Efficacy

Monitoring tools focusing solely on faster outage detection time fail to significantly contribute to reducing the overall downtime. The real value lies in how these tools address and resolve outages, influencing trends by increasing the time between outages and minimizing outage durations.

The Significance of Diagnosis & Resolution

Diagnosing and recording incident resolutions consistently can considerably reduce diagnosis times. Tools facilitating service-aware operations offer a measurable return on investment by streamlining repair, recovery, and restoration times.

The Need for Comprehensive Analysis

To truly add value, monitoring tools should provide detailed analyses, including outage time, deviation from historical trends, average incident times, affected services, outage causes, and metrics like Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), and Mean Time Between Service Incidents (MTBSI).

Bridging the Gap with SD-WAN

Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN), particularly exemplified by Fusion Broadband South Africa 's solution, introduces a paradigm shift in operations management. SD-WAN offers ubiquitous network visibility, fulfilling various operational requisites that legacy systems struggle to address. Remarkably, SD-WAN, inclusive of built-in monitoring and analytics, comes at a lower cost than standalone monitoring components of legacy systems.

Embracing SDN for Enhanced Operations

The convergence of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and cybersecurity is the key to revolutionizing operations management. SD-WAN, like Fusion's, stands as a testament to addressing operational challenges by providing holistic network visibility and meeting the dynamic needs of modern businesses.

Wrapping up, the transition from conventional monitoring to SDN-based solutions like Fusion's SD-WAN presents a transformative opportunity for operations management. With its comprehensive monitoring capabilities, SD-WAN not only bridges the monitoring and operations gap but also unlocks operational efficiencies, providing unparalleled visibility and cost-effectiveness.

• This article is based on one that was first published on ITWeb.

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Ronald Bartels ensures that Internet inhabiting things are connected reliably online at Fusion Broadband South Africa - the leading specialized Last Mile SD-WAN provider in South Africa. Learn more about the best SD-WAN in the world: 👉 Contact Fusion