Why is network analytics so important?
If you’ve read our previous articles, you’d know by now that we have been endorsing ‘software-defined everything’ to the T. We strongly believe that SD-WAN is the present and the future. The demand for Network SaaS is perpetual and the triad of The Cloud, Network and the Internet is gradually becoming the IT God for the lesser mortals.
Network monitoring and managing is metamorphosing as we speak. The process is enhanced by machine learning wherein the tool is updated in real time, based on changing conditions in the network.
The sole purpose is to find the anomalies in the network, services, and applications and provide appropriate solutions, which prior to virtualization, cloud computing and mobile devices, were rather simple. The users had to be plugged in, within one restricted physical location, to access the applications and the services.
Well, now that is not the case. Now we have a number of variables that need to be factored in. For example:
- Different mobile hardware
- Various operating systems
- Differing internet service providers, i.e. diverse IPs
- Heterogeneous internet speed
Any of these can create an issue which is eventually clubbed under a “network outage” or an “IT issue”. Now it is the IT department’s job to figure out whether it was DNS, and OS issue, a WAN problem, DHCP request not reaching server or simply a Wi-Fi issue.
So, if you think about it, it is only logical for the Network Analytics team to use Big Data to manage the issues that were originally created by the same Big Data itself.
Challenges
The quintessential network analytics tool ought to have the capacity for the following:
- Analyse network data
- Resolve complex problems with the least TAT
- Provide insights
- Suggest relevant actions to counteract the problem
- Provide feedback
- Augment positive user-experience
- And lastly, be affordable for the enterprises of all sizes
Network Analytics may seem like a vicious circle at times. Network managers need a huge amount of data to understand the said issue. However, assembling and transmitting that data can add on to the specific issue they need to solve.
A true real-time identification to check if a problem is increasing or decreasing is to continuously check the devices in question. However, this may create the issue of over-polling a device aggravating the already congested path.
Although vendors like NetScout and Gigamon have come up with products to reduce the over-polling issue with Network Taps (a device to monitor the traffic passing between 2 network nodes by creating a mirrored traffic flow for the task) in place. These taps make the network robust and transparent so that they mirror the traffic without hampering the actual flow. These are highly effective for legacy environments. However, one can only imagine that the challenges this tech is bound to encounter with the network scaling. In addition, these product deployments are not economical.
One of the most widely used protocols, SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is supported on an extensive range of hardware. Alongside hardware, SNMP can be used to monitor services such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).
Then again, while, SNMP is a great data source is great for extracting device-based quantitative instrumentation from the network devices, it may not reveal the actual issue the user is encountering, especially for applications and services such as VoIP, desktop video, collaboration tools and other forms unified communications.
Benefits
- optimizes the network for increased employee productivity
- decreases the amount of time that IT spends on troubleshooting tasks.
- proactively delivers great user experiences
- analyses, inspects and optimizes the bandwidth
Network services, applications, and security measures must be aligned with the business goals as IP networks happen to be an integral part of the client’s core business model. This is why you should be well-versed with the services that you require for your enterprise. At Lavelle Networks, our team will answer all your queries thoroughly before you make any decision.
Get in touch with our team for more information on the matter.
