Why You Need a Centralized Network Monitoring and Management System
Versa Networks
October 1, 2018
Contextual Visibility: WAN-Security Monitoring
Gartner estimates that the average cost of network downtime is around $5,600 p/minute, which extrapolates to well over $300K p/hour. A fairly scary number, we have to admit. And to scare you further, here is a video we dug out about the massive business impact of a downtime.
IT leaders and CIOs acknowledge the importance of constant network monitoring and a more centralized approach to network management and monitoring. As a result, most enterprises will also boast of a network management and monitoring tool in place.
However, as digital transformations and disruptive technologies like cloud and IoT become more pervasive, the enterprise network environment has become even more complex and complicated than ever before. Managing, monitoring and securing the enterprise WAN, across branch/remote offices, multiple products, global transport hubs, Clouds and OS have become equally complicated, beyond the realms of the capabilities of off-the-shelf tools.
That is why, an integrated, centralized approach to the contextual visibility of WAN and branch security is indispensable for the contemporary digital enterprise.
Highly granular visibility to WAN performance and risk
As enterprise networks keep getting more complex, IT leaders need to find a solution that is tightly integrated and woven deeply within the fabric of the network itself. A comprehensive all-suite solution would ideally be designed in a way, such that each component tightly integrates with the next, which provides a network with fewer feature gaps.
A holistic network monitoring and management system needs to be tightly integrated with network functions and key components like network security. This inevitably gives network administrators a single pane of glass from which to manage the entire enterprise WAN.
As compared to an add-on tool for monitoring, a unified approach to network monitoring and management provides an easier and better way to configure and deploy end-to-end products. Moreover, as compared to add-on tools, an integrated approach eliminates the need for administrators to manually update and/or replace features to keep pace with the latest technology developments, pay for extra licensing cost and renewals, and manage SLAs with multiple vendors – all of which can be a time consuming and tedious task for an already overburdened IT team.
Most importantly, an integrated tool ensures that network admin teams spend less time worrying about the interoperability of various network components.
What are the key features a WAN monitoring application should include?
- Deep visibility and granularity to every single packet, flow and session by site, protocol, WAN link, transport, application and end-user QoE
- Contextual visibility to networking performance and security posture policies from one central console for every node in the mesh
- Analytics for event correlation, incident management, service assurance and optimization for transit, cloud and applications
- Robust API’s to allow XSP’s to ingest performance data and encapsulate management images so that AI and ML can eventually take over
- In the SD-WAN world, it’s also key to allow monitoring and analytics data to interact with orchestration platforms so that network operators can automate policies that are flexible enough to reprogram on the fly.
Versa Director Provides a Comprehensive Solution
Versa Director is a component of Versa’s Secure Cloud IP Platform offering. Versa Director provides the essential management, monitoring and orchestration capabilities needed to deliver Versa’s software-defined network and security services. This central portal simplifies and automates the creation, delivery, management and operations of SD-WAN, SD-Security, SD-Branch services of the Versa Secure Cloud IP software platform.
To sum up, a context-aware tool/portal for network management and monitoring like Versa Director simplifies the arduous task of overseeing networks that extend through multiple environments all the while keeping complexity and cost low. IT teams gain a better understanding and control over the enterprise WAN and ensure seamless service delivery, and significantly lower downtime or time is taken to resolve network issues and strengthen security.
Know more about Versa Director, access the data sheet or just reach out to us for a demo.
