In today’s connected era, network visibility is the foundation for maintaining strong security and optimal performance in information technology infrastructure. As companies grow and networks become more complex, it is important to have comprehensive knowledge of network activity and monitoring. Let’s understand more about network visibility and why it matters below.
Understanding Network Visibility
Network visibility refers to the ability to monitor, analyze, and manage network traffic in real-time. Network visibility involves retrieving data from various network segments and devices, then processing it and presenting this data in a way that administrators can understand and act upon.
A comprehensive view of network status and activity is essential for diagnosing problems, optimizing performance, and network security. There are several main components in network visibility to maintain cybersecurity, namely:
- Traffic monitoring: obtaining data packets and flow information within a network to understand its traffic patterns.
- Data analysis: using tools and algorithms to interpret network data.
- Visualization: presents data in a format accessible through dashboards and reports.
- Alerts: set up notifications for unusual or suspicious activity.
The Reason of Network Visibility is Important
Why is network visibility so important in the networks that companies use? Here are some reasons:
1. Improve Security Threat Detection
Network visibility enables real-time identification of anomalies and potential cyber threats. By monitoring traffic patterns and behavior, companies can detect and handle security incidents more quickly.
2. Maintain compliance with the prevailing regulations in the industry
Many industries require strict adherence to a variety of regulations. Network visibility can help ensure that companies are compliant with these regulations. Comprehensive monitoring and reporting helps maintain compliance.
3. Improve Network Optimization Performance
By understanding what flows and bottlenecks occur in network traffic, administrators can optimize the performance of their infrastructure. That way, administrators can ensure smooth and efficient operational activities.
4. Make good planning
The use of a network with good visibility allows administrators and network teams to better plan and scale resources to meet the company’s current and future demands and needs.
5. Solving Operational Efficiency Problems
When the network visibility is good, then the identification and resolution of problems can be done quickly and effectively. That way, the network team can quickly reduce downtime and keep company productivity running as optimally as possible.
6. Better Resource Management
Network visibility that runs well and comprehensively is able to help the allocation and management of network resources efficiently. More important elements will be helped thanks to their proper allocation.
Apply Network Visibility
To achieve effective network visibility, companies generally use a combination of hardware and software, which includes:
- Network eavesdropping device: hardware that captures data directly from a network link.
- Packet intermediaries: devices that collect and filter data from multiple sources.
- Network monitoring software: applications that analyze and visualize networks.
Network Visibility Best Practices
To achieve good network visibility, it takes some effort as below:
1. Collecting Data Consistently
By collecting detailed data on the traffic flowing within the network, companies can gain a better understanding of the devices, applications, and protocols used, as well as the data being transmitted. Data collection can help companies identify and investigate potential security threats, performance issues, and compliance more quickly and effectively.
Effective and reliable data collection can be achieved through the use of hardware and software, such as eavesdropping tools and network monitoring. The combination of the two can be placed in key locations of the network, such as at the edge, to know the outgoing and incoming traffic.
2. Threat analysis by experts
Analyzing cybersecurity threats with expert help is a process that uses professional knowledge and expertise to analyze network traffic and identify potential security threats.
This step is able to help companies to achieve network visibility by giving a deeper understanding of the types of threats that exist on the network. Not only that, but the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by attackers can also be spotted and dealt with quickly.
3. Follow Up Warnings
Effective network visibility will provide contextual alerts that are easy for users to understand, so it will be very helpful for companies to get important information and follow up. If there are security threat alerts, network performance issues, and compliance issues, they can be dealt with appropriately and quickly.
A given alert contains information about the specific event or condition that triggered the alert. This warning will greatly help the company to understand the nature of the warning quickly and take appropriate action.
For example, if an alert is triggered by a device trying to connect to an IP address that is at risk of harm, then the alert will provide details about the device, the IP address. and the type of connection used.
Challenges in network visibility
It is also important to know what is often a challenge to get good network visibility. Here are some challenges to note:
1. Remote Access
The trend of working remotely is increasing, making it more difficult for companies to maintain visibility of traffic on their networks. Remote workers may access the network from different locations, using different devices and networks. This will make it difficult for network visibility tools to give a complete and accurate view of traffic.
2. Network Blind Spot
A blind spot is an area of the network that cannot provide complete coverage. This can be caused by a variety of factors, ranging from the use of encrypted traffic, the presence of unauthorized devices, or the use of cloud-based services. These blind spots can make it difficult for companies to detect and respond to potential security threats and performance issues.
3. Limitations Of The Network Visibility Tool
Network visibility tools that companies use may have limitations in terms of the detail of the reports provided, what can be monitored, and the scale of providing solutions. Therefore, the company needs to choose the right and already proven reliable tool. Network visibility is very important to avoid various cybercrime threats that are increasingly high today. Netmonk with its product Netmonk Prime offers a network monitoring tool that works continuously and is easy to understand. Already used by various large companies, just visit the Netmonk website for more info.
