Cisco Network Management Solutions From CCIE Certified Professionals
A wealth of network management products from Cisco and other vendors underscores the value and difficulty of supporting IT infrastructure. Progent's Cisco qualified network management engineers are experienced at helping businesses develop management solutions based on Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Syslog, and NetFlow protocols to build powerful tools for understanding network bandwidth usage and latency, monitoring key router and switch performance characteristics, and recognizing traffic patterns, processes, and appliances that use available services.
Progent can assist businesses to utilize a rich range of open source and license-based monitoring and management solutions to maintain a Cisco-powered environment. Utilities used by Progent's consultants include MRTG, Cacti, Nagios, PRTG, Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM), Cisco Monitor Manager, Cisco Network Assistant, Cisco Security Manager, OpenView, Concord E-Health, AlterPoint DeviceAuthority, Adventnet Netflow, Solarwinds Orion, and NetMRI.
Network management tools can enable IT administrators to understand current network utilization and intelligently plan for future traffic increases. Management tools can also be deployed to identify poor or improper utilization of network resources, such as streaming video, peer-to-peer file sharing, etc. that can eat up valuable and scarce network bandwidth. A well planned network management plan can also aid organizations to arrive at informed decisions on network upgrades after they recognize the amount of network resources historically required at specific times.
Having an efficient network management solution in place beforehand is essential to avoid major problems that can be due to Denial Of Service attacks and dangerous viruses. These assaults can leave the network unusable and in the absence of proper utilities it can be time consuming, if not virtually impossible, to discover the location of the problem.
Network Management Solutions from Cisco
Cisco has created an assortment of effective tools that should be the foundation for any management solution. Used in combination with appropriate third-party tools, Cisco's network management software can enhance the competitive value of networks for companies of any size by improving key areas such as resource utilization, throughput, resilience, protection, repair, and scalability. Cisco's most popular network management products include:
Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager is a browser-based Java applet that lets you configure and operate the software built into security devices. Adaptive Security Device Manager is installed by the adaptive security appliance, and allows you to configure, track, and control the unit.
Monitor Manager is a management and monitoring application designed for the requirements of small and medium-sized companies. Monitor Manager actively scans important appliance parameters on voice/data networks serving five to 250 users and equipped with as many as 250 Voice over IP phones. Monitor Manager offers:
Up-to-date tracking of key device processes on SMB-class routers, switches, and voice gateways, Cisco Communications Manager Express, Cisco Unity Express, security devices, access points, and Cisco Unified IP Phones
Support for the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series communications appliance for companies with as many as 50 workers
Monitor Manager tracks the system on a 24x7 basis and periodically polls and collects inventory and performance-monitoring data from the managed devices in the network. Monitor Manager is a Windows-based application and is completely nondisruptive to IT processes and does not use any agent on managed devices. The application offers a variety of useful features such as:
Network discovery and topology
Device and service level views of Unified Communications deployment
Networkwide device identification logging and documentation
Highly secure and reliable communication
Appliance operations tracking
IP Telephony monitoring
Connection status and traffic monitoring
Real-time alarms and notifications
Documentation
Setup log
Cisco Network Assistant is a PC-based network management application designed for for wired and wireless LANs (WLANs) for growing organizations that have as many as 40 switches and routers. By utilizing Smartports technology, the application simplifies configuration, deployment, and continuing management and support of Cisco-powered environments. Network Assistant offers a centralized system view and permits IT administrators to employ its functions across Cisco switches, routers, and access points.
Cisco Security Manager is a powerful but simple to operate application for centrally provisioning all facets of appliance configuration and policies for PIX and ASA firewalls, virtual private networks, and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS). Security Manager effectively handles even small networks consisting of fewer than ten appliances, but also expands to control enterprise systems with thousands of Cisco routers, security appliances, and switch services modules. Expansion is enabled through smart policy-based control procedures that can streamline administrative overhead. Key features of Security Manager are:
Supports provisioning for Cisco routers running an IOS security software image, ASA 5500 security appliances, PIX firewalls, IPS 4200 Series sensors, and Catalyst 6500 family security services modules
Respond more quickly to attacks: specify and apply updated policies to many hundreds of devices in a few simple steps
Intuitive graphical user interface offers superior ease-of-use
Multiple views that provide versatile methods to control devices and security policies such as the capability to manage the security network visually on a topology image
Extensive animated help for the first-time operator to speed up training time
Centrally specify which policies are common and automatically inherited by additional appliances to make sure corporate policies are implemented consistently, while providing sufficient versatility to customize policies at the individual appliance level
Ability to create a single firewall rule database for Cisco platforms with intelligent analysis of firewall policies to determine anomalies within the rule base
Easily set up location-to-location, hub-and-spoke, full-mesh IPSec, or extranet Virtual Private Network connections by means of a VPN wizard
Integration with Cisco Access Control Server (ACS) for granular role based access control to devices and management services
Operation with security MARS system to associate monitored data against corresponding firewall rules to promote faster management decisions and enhanced network up time
Capability to assign particular tasks to every manager in the course of the deployment of a rule, with structured change management and tracking; permits the security and network operations team to act together as a cohesive unit with efficient coordination
How Progent's Consultants Can Assist Your Business with Network Management Solutions
Progent's Cisco-qualified network engineers can help you to utilize Cisco's management tools alongside a selection of powerful open source and proprietary applications to develop a complete management solution to keep your network functioning smoothly, consolidate valuable resources, protect your data, recover quickly from hardware breakdowns or deliberates assaults, and enable you to expand or repurpose network hardware intelligently and economically as your business grows.
Progent can also show you how to utilize network management applications to monitor and classify network data to enable traffic shaping, which permits you to program Cisco routers to enforce a variety of throughput restrictions on designated types of activity based on the importance you specify. By storing and sorting excess packets above your contracted rates, and by giving preference to critical applications, traffic shaping can prevent service provider excess usage penalties from spinning out of control and/or eliminate gaps in worker productivity resulting from brute force policing of your network bandwidth restrictions during peak demand.
Progent's CISM, CISSP, and ISSAP security consultants can assist you to create a comprehensive security strategy that incorporates your network management processes, and Progent's remote and in person network experts and Cisco CCIE and CNA qualified engineers can utilize the latest network management tools to isolate and fix trouble quickly to keep your network productive.
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A wealth of network management products from Cisco and other vendors underscores the value and difficulty of supporting IT infrastructure. Progent's Cisco qualified network management engineers are experienced at helping businesses develop management solutions based on Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Syslog, and NetFlow protocols to build powerful tools for understanding network bandwidth usage and latency, monitoring key router and switch performance characteristics, and recognizing traffic patterns, processes, and appliances that use available services.
