An abundance of network management tools from Cisco and third-party vendors highlights the value and difficulty of network management. Progent's Cisco-certified network management engineers are experienced at assisting companies design management strategies utilizing on SNMP, SYSLOG services, and Cisco NetFlow to create powerful mechanisms for network bandwidth usage and latency, viewing key router and switch operational metrics, and recognizing traffic patterns, applications, and devices utilizing available resources.
Progent can assist customers to utilize a rich selection of open source and proprietary management solutions to manage a Cisco-powered environment. Utilities familiar to Progent's engineers include MRTG, Cacti, Nagios, PRTG, Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager, Cisco Monitor Manager, Cisco Security Manager, OpenView, Concord E-Health, AlterPoint DeviceAuthority, Adventnet Netflow and Firewall Analyzer, Big Brother, and NetMRI.
Network management tools can allow IT administrators to understand current system utilization and intelligently plan for future traffic increases. Network management tools can also be deployed to identify inefficient or inappropriate utilization of network resources, for example streaming audio and video, peer-to-peer sharing, etc. that can waste expensive and scarce network resources. A well planned network management plan can also aid businesses to arrive at intelligent choices on wide and local area network upgrades after they appreciate how much network bandwidth really needed at any one time.
Having an efficient network management platform in place ahead of time is essential to prevent major problems that can be caused by Denial Of Service (DoS) attacks and dangerous viruses/Trojans. Such assaults can render the network unstable and in the absence of proper tools it can be difficult, and in some cases virtually impossible, to discover the source of the trouble.
Network Management Products from Cisco
Cisco offers an array of effective tools that should be the foundation for any network management strategy. Utilized in combination with appropriate third-party products, Cisco's network management offerings can improve the business value of networks for companies of all sizes by helping with important areas such as resource utilization, throughput, resilience, security, repair, and capacity planning. Cisco's most popular network management products include:
Cisco ASDM is a browser-based Java applet that lets you set up and monitor the management utilities on security devices. Adaptive Security Device Manager is installed by the network appliance, and allows you to set up, track, and control the device.
Cisco Monitor Manager is a management solution intended to address the requirements of small and midsize organizations. Monitor Manager continuously monitors important device parameters on voice/data environments serving 5 to 250 workers and equipped with as many as 250 VoIP phones. The application provides:
Cisco Network Assistant is a desktop-based management tool optimized for LANs and WLANS for expanding organizations with up to 40 Cisco switches and routers. By running Smartports, Network Assistant simplifies setup, installation, and ongoing administration and maintenance of Cisco-powered environments. It provides a centralized network view and permits network administrators to deploy its features across switches, routers, and access points.
Cisco Security Manager is a highly functional but simple to operate solution for centrally provisioning all facets of device configuration and policies for Cisco firewalls, virtual private networks, and IPS. Cisco Security Manager effectively handles even small networks with fewer than ten devices, but also expands to manage large-scale systems with thousands of devices. Expansion is achieved through smart policy-based management techniques that can simplify administration. Highlights of Security Manager include:
Progent can also help you to use network management utilities to monitor and classify system data to implement traffic shaping, which permits you to set up routers to enforce different throughput restrictions on certain types of activity based on the importance you assign. By buffering and sorting data packets that exceed your contracted volume, and by giving preference to critical processes, traffic shaping can keep Internet Service Provider overage penalties from spiraling out of reach and/or avoid lost worker productivity resulting from brute force enforcement of your network bandwidth restrictions during peak demand.
Progent's CISA and ISSAP security professionals can help you to create an end-to-end security plan that encompasses your network management solution, and Progent's remote and on-site support specialists and Cisco CCIE-certified engineers can utilize advanced network monitoring and analysis technology to isolate and remediate problems quickly to keep your IT system productive.
To see more details about Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco technology, select a topic: