Not all IT problems come under the domain of the network engineer. In my previous Blog, I talked about IT shops having a hodge-podge set of tools. There are various reasons, but the real inefficiency is when these tools perform the same functions. There becomes a time and need to look at the IT problems from different perspectives. A few examples below:
Kenn Nied, Senior Network Engineer at WA State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, illustrates this encounter. While looking at OpManager from a networking point of view, the operator sees alerts that a few switches and a firewall are unresponsive. Is it faulty equipment or an attack? Then turning to a Security mindset, he looks at ManageEngine Device Expert to see real time and historical configuration changes. In one case, it was identified that there was a Firewall rule change made and realized it was a misconfiguration that caused the switch unresponsive. Diagnostic time was minimal.
Albert E. Whale, CHS CISA CISSP, Senior Technology & Security Director for ABS Computer Technology, Inc. explains the security aspect further. When you are managing the security of a business, there are several essential tools needed to manage the environment. There is a need to get a better handle on the design, information flow and stability in the environment. First is a baseline review of all of the Network devices. ManageEngine Device Expert captures the current configuration of the network switches and firewalls. It’s an invaluable tool for managing change control on configurations, and also evaluating all of the configurations at a glance. Continuing from the baseline report, both the ManageEngine EventLog Analyzer and Firewall Analyzer determine bottle necks in network throughput and attack information within the Enterprise. Being proactive on security allows for protection before break-ins occur.
Bill Duffy, CTO of Northwind Technology describes the compliance angle. IT departments are faced with compliance oversight irrespective of whether its internal audit and risk management or external regulatory bodies overseeing a particular industry share common goals in meeting these requirements:
- Ability to incorporate aims of compliance reporting into overall monitoring and system administration strategy to optimize technology investments as requirements change and grow.
- Need to reduce the time spent on compliance and audit reporting.
- Use monitoring toolset to proactively manage risk across the organization.
- Demonstrate adherence to compliance controls with clear, objective and easily accessible evidence.
Central to achieving these aims is finding a comprehensive suite of tools that covers all areas of IT security and infrastructure and provides easy access to administrators and auditors. Moreover, it is paramount to provide a rich reporting framework to address ad-hoc and historical data requests as part of evidence gathering during audits. IT departments meeting compliance need to show service availability, IT administration staff activity tracking, change management, asset management, access control, as well as audit trails and logging (security, system, applications, maintenance etc).
The ManageEngine suite of products is unique in being able to effectively bridge the IT landscape to meet these compliance demands. By utilizing ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, OpManager and AD Manager Plus as well as modules for AD Audit Plus and Asset Explorer in an integrated fashion, we are able to provide a complete compliance approach streamlined to limit audit and administration burdens on human and system resources while delivering a risk management solution and satisfying audit controls.
Eric Wegner
Business Development Manager
20+ year veteran of the software industry and has 12 years of experience with ZOHO Corp., working on high performance and complex network management infrastructures for enterprises, network equipment manufacturers, service providers and military.
