Cisco Network Consultants

Network management systems assist companies to deploy infrastructure effectively, access user information rapidly, track network health, troubleshoot issues, protect against and respond to threats, and optimize performance. Network management tools can spot inefficient or improper uses of network services such as streaming media or peer-to-peer file sharing that can waste bandwidth, lower worker output or leave you vulnerable to data leakage. A prudently planned network management environment can also help companies to make informed capacity planning decisions by exposing tendencies in resource demand for various periods or types of tasks.

Cisco offers a diverse and growing catalog of infrastructure management solutions that support centralized management for local, cloud-based, or hybrid network architectures. With Cisco's later security, switching, and wireless infrastructure products, you can choose among Meraki, Cisco DNA Center, or CLI management platforms for network monitoring and management. For instance, you can connect the latest Catalyst or Meraki switches and Catalyst or Meraki WiFi 6/6E access points to the Meraki dashboard to monitor and manage vital components of your corporate infrastructure from the cloud. Progent's Catalyst WiFi access point consultants, Meraki WiFi access point consulting experts, Catalyst switches consulting experts, and Meraki switches consultants can help your organization to plan, deploy and tune a modern environment for network management.

Legacy Network Management Platforms from Cisco and Others
A wealth of network management products from Cisco and third-party suppliers highlights the value and difficulty of supporting IT infrastructure. Progent's seasoned network management consultants are experienced at assisting companies develop network management strategies utilizing on Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), SYSLOG services, and NetFlow protocols to build powerful mechanisms for tracking network utilization and latency, viewing important router and switch operational characteristics, and identifying traffic profiles, applications, and devices utilizing available resources.

Progent can assist businesses to utilize a broad selection of open source and proprietary monitoring and management products to manage a Cisco-powered environment. Utilities used by Progent's engineers include Cacti, Nagios, Paessler Router Traffic Grapher, Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager, Cisco Monitor Manager, Cisco Network Assistant, CiscoWorks, Cisco Security Manager, OpenView, Wireshark/Ethereal, Concord E-Health, Adventnet Netflow and Firewall Analyzer, Big Brother, Solarwinds Orion, and Necordia NetMRI.

Network management tools can enable organizations to be aware of existing system usage and intelligently prepare for future traffic increases. Network management tools can also be deployed to detect inefficient or improper utilization of network resources, such as streaming audio and video, peer-to-peer file exchange, etc. that can eat up valuable or scarce network resources. A carefully designed network management solution can also help businesses to make intelligent decisions on network upgrades after they recognize the amount of system bandwidth actually needed at any one time.

Having an efficient network management system in operation ahead of time is vital to prevent major problems that can be caused by DoS attacks and malicious viruses. These events can render the network unstable and in the absence of appropriate utilities it can be difficult, and in some cases practically impossible, to identify the location of the problem.

Network Management Tools from Cisco
Cisco has created a variety of powerful utilities that should form the basis for any management solution. Utilized in combination with the top outside vendor tools, Cisco's network management software can enhance the business value of networks for organizations of any size by addressing important areas such as resource utilization, performance, resilience, protection, repair, and scalability. Cisco's most familiar network management tools include:

Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager is a browser-based utility that allows you to configure and monitor the management utilities built into network appliances. ASDM is installed by the adaptive security appliance, and enables you to set up, monitor, and control the device.

Monitor Manager is a comprehensive management solution designed to handle the requirements of small and medium-sized companies. Cisco Monitor Manager actively scans important appliance parameters on voice/data environments used by 5 to 250 users and equipped with as many as 250 Voice over IP phones. Cisco Monitor Manager provides:

• Up-to-date scanning of important appliance parameters on small and midsize business-class routers and switches, Communications Manager Express, Cisco Unity Express, security appliances, wireless access points, and VoIP phones
• Ability to manage the Unified Communications 500 Series communications appliance for organizations with as many as 50 workers

• Network discovery and physical topology
• Device and process views of Cisco Unified Communications deployment
• Networkwide device identification collection and documentation
• Highly secure and reliable operation
• Cisco device performance monitoring
• IP Telephony monitoring
• Connection status and data traffic monitoring
• Immediate alerts and notifications
• Reports
• Configuration archive

Cisco Network Assistant is a desktop-based management tool designed for for LANs and WLANS for growing organizations with as many as 40 switches and routers. By using Cisco's Smartports technology, the application streamlines setup, installation, and ongoing administration and maintenance of Cisco-based networks. It provides a centralized network view and permits IT managers to deploy its features across switches, routers, and WAPs.

Cisco Security Manager is a feature-rich but simple to operate solution for centrally provisioning all facets of device configuration and security policies for firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs), and Intrusion Prevention Systems. The solution effectively manages even small networks with no more than than ten appliances, but also scales to manage enterprise networks composed of thousands of devices. Expansion is achieved through smart policy-based management techniques that can simplify administrative overhead. Highlights of Security Manager include:

• Supports provisioning for Cisco router platforms running an IOS security software image, ASA 5500 Series adaptive security appliances, Cisco PIX firewalls, Cisco IPS 4200 family inline security appliances, and Cisco Catalyst 6500 family security modules
• Reacts faster. more rapidly to threats: define and assign new security policies to many hundreds of devices in a few easy steps
• Rich GUI provides superior ease-of-use
• A variety of views that provide flexible methods to control devices and policies such as the ability to manage the security network graphically on a system topology image
• Comprehensive animated training for the first-time user to reduce training period
• Globally specify which policies are common and automatically inherited by new appliances to make sure corporate policies are implemented consistently, while providing sufficient versatility to customize policies at the individual appliance level
• Capability to build a common rule table for all Cisco firewalls with smart 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 links with a VPN wizard
• Compatibility with Cisco ACS for low-level role based access control to appliances and management services
• Integration with security MARS system to associate monitored data against corresponding firewall rules to help with faster decision making and enhanced network availability
• Capability to allocate specific tasks to every manager in the course of the deployment of a policy, with formal change management and logging; permits the security and systems operations team to work cooperatively as a cohesive unit with efficient coordination

Progent can also assist you to utilize network management applications to analyze and classify network data to enable traffic shaping, which allows you to configure routers to impose different bandwidth restrictions on certain classes of processes based on the priorities you specify. By buffering and sorting data packets that exceed your committed volume, and by assigning preference to the most important processes, traffic shaping can keep ISP excess usage charges from spiraling out of reach and/or avoid lost worker productivity caused by brute force enforcement of your network traffic volume restrictions during periods of heavy demand.

Progent's CISA and ISSAP security professionals can show you how to create a comprehensive security strategy that incorporates your network management solution, and Progent's remote and on-site network experts and Cisco CCIE and CNA qualified engineers can use advanced network management tools to identify and remediate problems quickly to keep your IT system productive.

To learn more information about Progent's consulting support for Cisco solutions, choose a topic:

• Introduction to Cisco Network Support
• Fast and Affordable Remote Assistance from a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) Network Engineer
• Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewalls: Integration and Management Services
• ASA 5500-X Firewall with Firepower: Consulting and Management Expertise
• Cisco ASA 5500 Firewalls Consulting Expertise
• PIX Firewall Consulting Help
• Cisco Routers Engineering Support
• Cisco Wireless Engineering Services
• Cisco Aironet Wireless Access Points Design Expertise
• Cisco Small Business 100, 300 and 500 Wireless APs Consulting Services
• Cisco Catalyst 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6/6E Access Points Planning, Configuration and Debugging Expertise
• Cisco WiFi Controllers Support Services
• Cisco Meraki Wireless Access Points Deployment Expertise
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and Cisco CallManager Integration and Troubleshooting
• Cisco Voice over IP (VoIP) Phones and IP Video Desktop Phones Consulting Services and Cisco Wireless VoIP Phone Solutions
• Cisco Jabber Deployment Expertise
• Cisco Catalyst Switches Engineering Services
• Nexus Switches Support and Troubleshooting Expertise
• Cisco Meraki Switches Consulting and Support Expertise
• Cisco Security and VPN Integration Assistance
• SIP and CUBE Integration Solutions: SIP Trunking and CUBE Integration Consulting
• Cisco Duo MFA Two-factor Authentication Services for an At-Home Workforce
• Design Expertise for Cisco-powered Datacenters
• Network Optimization Consulting for ISPs