A wealth of network management products from Cisco and other suppliers highlights the value and complexity of maintaining networks. Progent's seasoned network management consultants are experienced at helping businesses design network management strategies based on SNMP, SYSLOG services, and NetFlow protocols to create effective tools for tracking network bandwidth usage and network latency, viewing important router and switch performance characteristics, and recognizing traffic patterns, applications, and devices that use network resources.
Progent can help businesses to utilize a rich selection of free and proprietary management products to maintain a Cisco-powered environment. Tools used by Progent's consultants include Cacti, Nagios, Paessler Router Traffic Grapher, Cisco Cisco ASDM, Cisco Monitor Manager, CiscoWorks, Cisco Security Manager, OpenView, Wireshark/Ethereal, AlterPoint DeviceAuthority, Adventnet Netflow, Big Brother, and Necordia NetMRI.
Network management tools can enable organizations to understand current system utilization and intelligently plan for downstream capacity expansion. Management tools can also be used to detect poor or improper uses of system services, for example streaming audio and video, peer-to-peer sharing, etc. that can waste valuable and scarce network resources. A well crafted network management solution can also enable businesses to make intelligent decisions on system upgrades once they understand the amount of system bandwidth actually required at specific times.
Having an efficient network management system in place ahead of time is critical to avoid major problems that can be caused by DoS attacks and dangerous viruses. Such events can render the network unstable and without proper tools it can be difficult, and sometimes practically impossible, to identify the source of the problem.
Network Management Solutions from Cisco
Cisco has developed an assortment of effective utilities that should form the foundation for any management solution. Used in conjunction with appropriate third-party applications, Cisco's network management offerings can enhance the business value of networks for organizations of all sizes by improving important areas such as resource utilization, performance, availability, security, repair, and capacity planning. Cisco's most popular network management tools include:
Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager is a web Java applet that allows you to configure and monitor the management utilities on security appliances. Adaptive Security Device Manager is loaded by the Cisco appliance, and enables you to configure, track, and manage the unit.
Cisco Monitor Manager is a management application designed to handle the needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Monitor Manager continuously tracks key appliance processes on voice/data environments used by five to 250 workers and equipped with as many as 250 Voice over IP phones. The application offers:
Cisco Network Assistant is a PC-hosted network management application optimized for wired and wireless LANs (WLANs) for expanding companies that have up to 40 switches and routers. By utilizing Smartports technology, the application simplifies configuration, installation, and continuing administration and support of Cisco networks. Cisco Network Assistant provides a unified system view and allows IT administrators to employ its features across switches, routers, and wireless access points.
Cisco Security Manager is a highly functional but easy-to-use application for centrally provisioning all facets of appliance set up and security policies for Cisco PIX and ASA security appliances, virtual private networks (VPNs), and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS). Cisco Security Manager effectively handles even small networks consisting of no more than than ten devices, but also scales to manage enterprise networks composed of thousands of Cisco routers, security appliances, and switch services modules. Scalability is enabled through intelligent policy-driven management procedures that can simplify administrative overhead. Highlights of Cisco Security Manager are:
Progent can also assist you to use network management tools to analyze and categorize system data to enable traffic shaping, which permits you to program routers to enforce different bandwidth restrictions on designated types of processes according to the importance you specify. By storing and sorting data packets above your committed volume, and by giving preference to business-critical processes, traffic shaping can prevent service provider excess usage penalties from spiraling out of control and/or eliminate gaps in worker productivity resulting from indiscriminate enforcement of your network traffic volume limits during periods of heavy demand.
Progent's CISM, CISSP, and ISSAP security specialists can assist you to develop an end-to-end security strategy that encompasses your network management solution, and Progent's remote and on-premises network specialists and Cisco CCIE and CNA qualified consultants can use the latest network management tools to identify and remediate problems quickly to keep your IT system running smoothly.
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