As networks become more highly dynamic, managing an entire network efficiently is not an easy task. When it comes to network monitoring, all you need to figure out is the type of network devices and the specific metrics you need to monitor. But when it comes to network management, there’s more to be taken into account, from network security, bandwidth hogs, change management, and policy management to performance optimization.
In a nutshell, everything from network availability to reliability should be taken care of. How do you achieve this? With the help of an efficient network management tool.
But, where does the need to look beyond just network monitoring arise from? Let’s dive into that before learning more about network management tools.
The need for holistic network management tools in the IT market
To match growing network needs, organizations now are focusing on improving their digital architecture. With this enhanced network landscape comes the complexity of managing every network device along with the application layers they are hosted on.
However, in a hybrid network architecture, network faults such as misconfigurations, congested network traffic, VPN configuration errors, IP conflicts, and application slowness are very common. One way to tackle this is to implement individual tools for each of these network faults, as these separate tools solve the intended problems effectively. However, you will accumulate a lot of uncorrelated numbers instead of insights.
Essential points to consider when assessing network management tools
This is where network management tools come in. The network management software you choose should be able to administer, maintain, operate, provision, and secure your network holistically.
Here’s a little more on each of these in detail.
Network administration
Network administration involves planning, deploying, and managing everything happening on the network. Though this is the sole responsibility of the network administrator, a network monitoring tool should be able to do it for them by automating minor tasks, monitoring network performance, identifying potential issues, and alerting the administrator in case of breaches. The tool should enable easy administration of your network and streamline all the processes happening inside it.
Network maintenance
An ideal network management solution should be able to monitor your entire network in real time and raise timely alerts when the network is not performing at an optimum level. This ensures the network health is maintained properly.
Network operation
A network management tool should be able to improve the efficiency of the network rather than just making the network operate well. This involves a set of activities, like configuring network devices to more easily troubleshoot network faults, that help with monitoring and maintaining the network’s performance.
Network provisioning
Provisioning of new resources and services within a network is crucial, and the network management tool you choose should enable network administrators to understand the utilization of the network at a glance.
Network security
Network security is one of the primary aspects any network management tools should have. The software should help prevent any unauthorized access and protect the network from vulnerabilities.
Why OpManager stands out among network management tools
ManageEngine OpManager is highly integrated network management software that helps you monitor all your network devices, including routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, wireless LAN controllers, servers, VMs, printers, storage devices, and any other network device connected to the network through an IP address. It helps you monitor these network components for availability, health, performance, and much more.
Here’s how OpManager manages your network holistically:
- Quickly discover all the devices in your organization in bulk by IP range, subnet, Active Directory, or CSV file. OpManager’s robust discovery options like discovery scheduling, discovery filters, and the discovery rule engine make the entire discovery process seamless.
- Post discovery, you can monitor the availability and health of your devices automatically and drill down into their performance by assigning them specific performance monitors. You can also create custom monitors besides the predefined ones.
- Set multi-level thresholds for every critical metric and get notified instantly about any kind of threshold breach. Using the adaptive thresholds feature, leverage AI- and ML-based algorithms for metrics like CPU, memory utilization, and response time, and forecast highly reliable values that can be used to set thresholds.
- Automate L1 troubleshooting with OpManager’s curated workflows. This will help you automate your monitoring needs by executing predefined actions.
- Gain a bird’s-eye view of your organization with OpManager’s various visualization techniques, including Layer 2 maps, customizable business views with live geo locations, data centers, and rack views.
- OpManager’s highly dynamic dashboard helps you gain clear insights into your network. With more than 200 performance widgets, you can arrange them based on your monitoring needs and see only what’s important as soon as you log in.
- Create, schedule, and generate over 100 reports for different metrics and gain deep insights about your network within minutes.
And that’s not all—OpManager can do even more for you
Network configuration management
The Network Configuration Manager module helps maintain a safe and stable network infrastructure wherein you can revert, back up, and schedule network configuration changes. You can also track who made a change and when it was made. Read more.
Network traffic and bandwidth analysis
With the NetFlow Analyzer module in OpManager, you can get real-time visibility into the network and understand the bandwidth consumption of your organization. This in turn will help you improve the end-user experience. Read more.
Firewall and log management
The Firewall Analyzer module in OpManager helps manage firewall logs, firewall rules, network configurations, and much more to make your network secure and avoid potential threats. Read more.
IPAM
With the IP address and switch port management (IPAM) module, you can easily monitor and troubleshoot IT resources. Track IP addresses for availability and prevent IP conflicts, thereby minimizing network disruptions. Read more.
Application performance monitoring:
With the Applications Manager module, gain insights on the real-time performance of business-critical web applications, databases, containers, and the user experience, and troubleshoot faults before they impact your end users. Read more.
And what’s more, OpManager does all of this from a single console. Enable the modules you need and start taking control of your entire network right away!
Grab your 30-day, free trial and try it out for yourself, or request a free, personalized demo to understand the product better.
