Cisco Expert Network Consulting and Support

An abundance of network management tools from Cisco and third-party suppliers highlights the importance and difficulty of maintaining networks. Progent's Cisco-certified network management engineers are experienced at assisting businesses develop management solutions utilizing on Simple Network Management Protocol, Syslog, and Cisco NetFlow to create effective tools for network utilization and latency, monitoring important router and switch performance metrics, and identifying traffic profiles, applications, and devices that use available services.

Progent can help customers to deploy a rich selection of free and license-based monitoring and management utilities to maintain Cisco infrastructure. Tools familiar to Progent's engineers include MRTG, Cacti, Nagios, PRTG, Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM), Cisco Network Assistant, CiscoWorks, Cisco Security Manager, OpenView, AlterPoint DeviceAuthority, Advent and Firewall Analyzer, Big Brother, and NetMRI.

Network management platforms can enable IT administrators to understand existing system utilization and effectively prepare for future traffic increases. Management tools can also be deployed to detect inefficient or improper uses of network services, for example streaming audio and video, peer-to-peer file sharing, etc. that can eat up expensive or scarce network bandwidth. An efficiently planned network management plan can also assist businesses to make informed decisions on wide and local area network upgrades after they appreciate how much network resources actually required at any one time.

Having an efficient network management solution in place in advance is vital to prevent severe problems that can follow DoS attacks and malicious viruses. Such assaults can leave the network unstable and in the absence of proper tools it can be difficult, and sometimes virtually impossible, to discover the source of the problem.

Network Management Solutions from Cisco
Cisco has created a selection of effective tools that should be the basis for any network management solution. Utilized in combination with appropriate outside vendor tools, Cisco's network management software can enhance the business value of networks for companies of any size by improving key areas such as system utilization, throughput, resilience, security, troubleshooting, and capacity planning. Cisco's most popular network management products include:

Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager is a web utility that permits you set up and monitor the management utilities built into network devices. Cisco ASDM is loaded by the adaptive security device, and enables you to configure, track, and control the unit.

Cisco Monitor Manager is a comprehensive management solution developed for the needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Monitor Manager continuously scans key appliance parameters on voice and data environments serving 5 to 250 workers and equipped with up to 250 Cisco Unified IP phones. Cisco Monitor Manager provides:

• Up-to-date tracking of key appliance parameters on small and midsize business-class network appliances, Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express, Cisco Unity Express, security appliances, WAPs, and Cisco Unified IP Phones
• Support for the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series communications appliance for companies with up to 50 users

• Network discovery and physical topology
• Physical and service level views of Cisco Unified Communications implementation
• Networkwide device identification logging and reporting
• Highly secure and dependable operation
• Device performance tracking
• IP Telephony monitoring
• Interface status and traffic tracking
• Immediate alerts and event notification
• Reports
• Configuration log

Cisco Network Assistant is a desktop-hosted network management application designed for for wired and wireless LANs (WLANs) for expanding organizations that have up to 40 Cisco switches and routers. By utilizing Smartports technology, Network Assistant simplifies configuration, deployment, and ongoing administration and support of Cisco-powered environments. Network Assistant offers a centralized network view and allows network managers to deploy its functions across Cisco switches, routers, and WAPs.

Security Manager is a feature-rich but simple to operate solution for managing all facets of appliance set up and policies for firewalls, VPNs, and IPS. The solution efficiently manages even small networks consisting of no more than than ten appliances, but also expands to manage enterprise systems with thousands of devices. Scalability is enabled via intelligent policy-driven management techniques that can simplify administrative overhead. Highlights of Security Manager include:

• Allows control of Cisco router platforms configured with a Cisco IOS security software image, Cisco ASA 5500 Series adaptive security appliances, PIX security appliances, IPS 4200 inline security appliances, and Cisco Catalyst 6500 security services modules
• Reacts more quickly to attacks: specify and apply updated policies to many hundreds of appliances in just a few steps
• Intuitive GUI offers superior ease-of-use
• Multiple views that offer versatile methods to control appliances and policies such as the option to administer the security network graphically on a topology image
• Comprehensive video help for the first-time user to reduce learning time
• Centrally specify which policies are shared and automatically inherited by additional devices to ensure corporate policies are implemented regularly, while offering sufficient flexibility to modify policies at the local device level
• Capability to create a single firewall rule table for Cisco platforms with smart analysis of firewall policies to detect anomalies within the rule table
• Quickly configure site-to-site, hub-and-spoke, full mesh, or extranet VPN connections by means of a few mouse clicks
• Compatibility with Cisco Access Control Server (ACS) for low-level role based connection management to devices and administration services
• Integration with security MARS to associate monitored data with corresponding security appliance rules to help with faster decision making and enhanced network up time
• Capability to allocate particular jobs to each manager in the course of the implementation of a rule, with formal change control and tracking; permits the security and systems operations staff to act cooperatively as a single group with effective coordination

Progent can also show you how to use network management tools to monitor and classify network data to implement traffic shaping, which allows you to configure routers to impose different throughput constraints on certain types of processes according to the importance you specify. By buffering and sorting excess packets that exceed your contracted volume, and by giving priority to the most important processes, traffic shaping can keep service provider excess usage penalties from spiraling out of control and/or eliminate gaps in productivity resulting from brute force enforcement of your network bandwidth limits during peak demand.

Progent's CISM and CISSP security consultants can show you how to develop an end-to-end security strategy that incorporates your network management processes, and Progent's remote and in person support experts and Cisco CCIE-certified engineers can use the latest network monitoring and analysis tools to isolate and repair trouble rapidly to keep your IT system in business.

For additional information about Progent's professional support for Cisco solutions, choose a topic:

• Introduction to Cisco Support
• Timely Remote Assistance from a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) Engineer
• Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewalls: Integration and Management Support
• Cisco ASA 5500-X Firewall with Cisco Firepower: Configuration and Management Support
• Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Upgrade. Migration Support
• PIX Series Firewall Upgrade. Migration Help
• Cisco Routers Consulting Services
• Cisco Wireless Engineering Help
• Cisco Aironet Wireless Access Points Engineering Expertise
• Cisco Small Business 100, 300 and 500 WiFi APs Engineering Help
• Catalyst 802.11ax Wireless APs Solution Design, Deployment and Debugging Support
• Cisco WiFi Controllers Support Services
• Meraki APs Deployment Support
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and Cisco CallManager Integration and Technical Support
• Cisco Voice over IP (VoIP) Phones and IP Video Desktop Phones Consulting Services and Cisco Wireless IP Phone Integration
• Cisco Jabber Deployment Services
• Cisco Catalyst Switches Engineering Services
• Cisco Nexus Switches Configuration and Maintenance Services
• Meraki MS Switches Consulting and Support Expertise
• Cisco VPN and Network Security Consulting Help
• SIP and CUBE Infrastructure Solutions: SIP Trunking and Cisco CUBE Integration Expertise
• Infrastructure Design for Cisco-powered Data Centers
• Infrastructure Optimization Consulting for ISPs