Cisco Network Consulting and Support

An abundance of network management products from Cisco and third-party suppliers highlights the value and difficulty of supporting IT infrastructure. Progent's seasoned network management engineers are expert at helping businesses develop management solutions utilizing on SNMP, SYSLOG services, and Cisco NetFlow to build effective tools for tracking network bandwidth usage and network latency, monitoring important router and switch operational metrics, and identifying traffic profiles, applications, and appliances that use network services.

Progent can help customers to utilize a rich selection of free and proprietary management products to maintain Cisco infrastructure. Tools familiar to Progent's engineers include MRTG, Nagios, PRTG, Cisco Cisco ASDM, Cisco Network Assistant, CiscoWorks, Cisco Security Manager, OpenView, Concord E-Health, AlterPoint DeviceAuthority, Adventnet Netflow and Firewall Analyzer, Big Brother, Solarwinds Orion, and NetMRI.

Network management platforms can allow organizations to understand current network usage and intelligently plan for downstream traffic expansion. Network management utilities can also be used to highlight inefficient or inappropriate utilization of network resources, for example streaming audio and video, peer-to-peer sharing, etc. that can eat up expensive or scarce network bandwidth. A carefully planned network management solution can also enable businesses to arrive at informed choices on system improvements once they understand the amount of system bandwidth actually required at specific times.

Putting an effective network management solution in operation beforehand is essential to prevent severe problems that can follow Denial Of Service attacks and dangerous viruses/Trojans. These assaults can render the network unusable and without appropriate utilities it can be difficult, if not practically impossible, to discover the source of the problem.

Network Management Products from Cisco
Cisco offers a selection of effective utilities that should form the basis for any management solution. Used in combination with appropriate outside vendor products, Cisco's network management offerings can enhance the competitive value of network infrastructures for companies of any size by addressing key areas such as resource utilization, throughput, resilience, security, repair, and scalability. Cisco's most popular network management products include:

Cisco ASDM is a web utility that permits you set up and monitor the management utilities on security devices. Adaptive Security Device Manager is installed by the network appliance, and enables you to set up, track, and control the device.

Monitor Manager is a management and monitoring application designed for the requirements of small and midsize companies. Cisco Monitor Manager continuously monitors important appliance parameters on voice/data networks used by 5 to 250 users and equipped with as many as 250 VoIP phones. The application offers:

• Up-to-date monitoring of important appliance parameters on SMB-class routers, switches, and voice gateways, Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express, Cisco Unity Express, security appliances, WAPs, and Cisco Unified IP Phones
• Support for the Unified Communications 500 for businesses with up to 50 users

• Voice and data network discovery and physical topology
• Device and service level views of Cisco Unified Communications implementation
• System wide device identification logging and reporting
• Advanced security and reliable communication
• Cisco device operations monitoring
• IP Telephony monitoring
• Connection status and data traffic monitoring
• Real-time alerts and notices
• Documentation
• Setup archive

Network Assistant is a desktop-hosted network management application optimized for wired and wireless LANs (WLANs) for growing organizations with as many as 40 Cisco switches and routers. By utilizing Smartports, Cisco Network Assistant simplifies configuration, installation, and ongoing administration and maintenance of Cisco-based networks. Network Assistant offers a centralized network view and permits network managers to deploy its features among switches, routers, and access points.

Cisco Security Manager is a powerful but easy-to-use application for centrally provisioning all aspects of appliance configuration and policies for firewalls, virtual private networks, and Intrusion Prevention Systems. Security Manager efficiently manages even small environments consisting of fewer than ten appliances, but also expands to control enterprise networks composed of thousands of appliances. Expansion is enabled via intelligent policy-driven control techniques that can streamline administrative overhead. Key features of Cisco Security Manager are:

• Supports control of Cisco routers running an IOS security software image, Cisco ASA 5500 Series security appliances, Cisco PIX firewalls, Cisco IPS 4200 family sensors, and Catalyst 6500 Series security services modules
• Reacts faster. more rapidly to attacks: define and apply updated policies to many hundreds of appliances in just a few steps
• Rich GUI offers exceptional ease-of-use
• A variety of views that offer versatile methods to control devices and security policies including the option to manage the security environment visually on a system topology map
• Extensive video help for the new operator to speed up training period
• Globally call out which policies are shared and automatically inherited by new devices to ensure corporate policies are configured regularly, at the same time offering sufficient versatility to modify policies at the individual device level
• Ability to create a single firewall rule table for Cisco platforms with intelligent evaluation of firewall policies to determine conflicts in the rule table
• Quickly set up location-to-location, hub-spoke, full-mesh IPsec, or extranet Virtual Private Network connections by means of a few mouse clicks
• Compatibility with Cisco ACS for granular role based access management to devices and management functions
• Integration with Cisco security MARS to associate events against corresponding security appliance rules to promote faster decision making and increased system availability
• Capability to allocate particular tasks to each manager in the course of the implementation of a rule, with formal change management and logging; allows the security and systems operations staff to work cooperatively as a cohesive group with efficient teamwork

Progent can also help you to use network management applications to analyze and categorize network data to enable traffic shaping, which permits you to configure Cisco routers to enforce a variety of bandwidth restrictions on certain classes of processes based on the priorities you specify. By buffering and sorting excess packets that exceed your contracted rates, and by assigning priority to critical processes, traffic shaping can keep Internet Service Provider overage charges from spiraling out of reach and/or eliminate lost worker productivity caused by indiscriminate enforcement of your network bandwidth restrictions during peak demand.

Progent's CISM and CISSP security professionals can assist you to create an end-to-end security strategy that encompasses your network management processes, and Progent's remote and on-premises support specialists and Cisco CCIE and CNA qualified consultants can use the latest network monitoring and analysis technology to identify and fix problems quickly to keep your network running smoothly.

To see more details concerning Progent's consulting help for Cisco networking products, pick a subject:

• Overview of Cisco Support
• Fast and Affordable Remote Help from a CCIE Consultant
• Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewalls: Integration and Troubleshooting Expertise
• ASA 5500-X Firewalls with Cisco Firepower Services: Integration and Troubleshooting Expertise
• ASA 5500 Series Firewall Management Services
• Cisco PIX 500 Firewall Troubleshooting Expertise
• Cisco Routers Configuration and Troubleshooting Expertise
• Cisco Wireless Consulting Help
• Aironet APs Engineering Services
• Cisco Small Business Wireless Access Points Deployment Support
• Catalyst Wi-Fi 6 Wireless Access Points Solution Design, Configuration and Debugging Services
• Cisco WiFi Controllers Experts
• Cisco Meraki Access Points Engineering Services
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and CallManager Integration and Technical Support
• Cisco Voice over IP (VoIP) Phones and IP Video Phones Consulting Services and Wireless IP Phone Solutions
• Cisco Jabber and Management Expertise
• Catalyst Switches Consulting and Support Services
• Nexus Switches Deployment Expertise
• Cisco Meraki MS Switches Support and Troubleshooting Services
• Cisco VPN Setup and Troubleshooting Support
• SIP and CUBE Integration Solutions: SIP Trunks and CUBE Integration Expertise
• Design and Support for Cisco-based Data Centers
• Infrastructure Optimization Consulting for Internet Service Providers