The proper network Management tools allows you to follow these 6 simple tips. This will help you stay ahead of network probelms, and if a problem does occurs you will have the data to be able to analyze the problem.   Troubleshoot sporadic issues with the right equipment  The most irksome issues are often sporadic and require IT teams to wait for the problem to reappear or spend hours recreating the issue. With retrospective network analysis (RNA) solutions, it's possible to elimi...

{jcomments on} Detecting Phantom Devices on Your Network So you run a network discovery and you notice devices that you are not familiar with. A phantom device is a device that is unmanaged that should be monitored by your Network Management System (NMS) It seems these devices show up even though you have processes in place to prevent this type of behavior. These could be devices connected to the wrong network, printers, BYOD etc. A phantom device is invisible to you so you are unaware of the de...

The increasing density, complexity and expanse of modern networking environments have fueled the ongoing debate around which network analysis and monitoring tools serve the needs of the modern engineer best - placing Packet Capture and NetFlow Analysis at center-stage of the conversation. Granted, both can be extremely valuable tools in ongoing efforts to maintain and optimize complex environments, but as an engineer, I tend to focus on solutions that give me the insights I need without too much...

InterComms talks to Marius Heuler, CTO Infosim®, about Infosim® StableNet® and the management and orchestration of SDN and NFV environments Marius Heuler has more than 15 years of experience in network management and optimization. As CTO and founding member of Infosim®, he is responsible for leading the Infosim® technical team in architecting, developing, and delivering StableNet®. He graduated from the University of Würzburg with a degree in Computer Science, holds several Cisco certifications,...

Infosim®, the new leader in network performance management, today announced that it has been selected as the supplier of choice to consolidate the IT infrastructure performance monitoring capabilities at Athenahealth. Following an extensive evaluation of the performance management market, the organization identified StableNet® as the only vendor capable of offering a single comprehensive view of the performance and capacity of its IT infrastructure in one unified solution, and with the highest l...

IT Heroes: A Prescription for Network Health Each and every day, the bold men and women of IT risk it all to deliver critical applications and services. Their stories are unique. Their triumphs inspire. For the first time ever, the IT Heroes Series offers a revealing glimpse into the secrets and strategies that have won accolades for network teams around the world – and could do the same for you. Initial Symptoms Located in South West England, the Northern Devon National Health Service (NHS...

In Part 1 of this series I discussed how an NCCM solution and a CMDB can work together to create a more effective IT inventory system. In this post, I will be taking that a step further and show how your change configuration process will benefit from integration with that same CMDB. In general, the process of implementing IT infrastructure change happens at 3 separate stages of an assets lifecycle. Initial deployment / provisioningIn production / changesDecommissioning / removal In each of these...

Infosim®, the technology leader in automated Service Fulfillment and Service Assurance solutions, today announced the release of version 7.5 of its award-winning software suite StableNet® for Telco and Enterprise customers. StableNet® 7.5 provides a significant number of powerful new features, including: Dynamic Rule Generation (DRG); a new and revolutionary Fault Management concept REST interface supporting the new StableNet® iPhone (and upcoming Android) app Highly customizable dashboard ...

According an article in techtarget.com "Your routers and switches can yield a mother lode of information about your network--if you know where to dig." The article goes on to say that excavating and searching through endless traffic data and logs manufactured by your network system is a lot like mining for gold, and punching random holes to look for a few nuggets of information isn't very efficient. Your search will be much more fruitful if you know where to look and what it will look like. Fort...

Most networks today have a “traditional” IT monitoring solution in place which provides alarming for devices, servers and applications. But as the network evolves, so does the complexity and security risks and it now makes sense to formalize the process, procedures, and policies that govern access and changes to these devices. Vulnerability and lifecycle management also plays an important role in maintaining the security and integrity of network infrastructure. Network Configuration and Change M...

InterComms talks to Marius Heuler, CTO Infosim®, about Infosim® StableNet® and the management and orchestration of SDN and NFV environments Marius Heuler has more than 15 years of experience in network management and optimization. As CTO and founding member of Infosim®, he is responsible for leading the Infosim® technical team in architecting, developing, and delivering StableNet®. He graduated from the University of Würzburg with a degree in Computer Science, holds several Cisco certifications,...

We’ve been doing a lot of blogging around here lately about NCCM and the importance of having an automated configuration and change management system. We’ve even published a Best practices guide for NCCM. One of the main points in any NCCM system is having consistent and accurate configuration backups of all of your “key” devices. When I ask Network Managers to name their key devices, they generally start with WAN / Internet routers and Firewalls. This makes sense of course because, in a modern ...

Network performance management is something that virtually every business needs, but not something that every business is actively doing, or even aware of. And why should they? While understanding the technical side of things is best left to the IT department, understanding the benefits of a properly managed network is something that will help get the business managers on board, especially when good performance management solutions might be a cost that hadn't been considered. So what are the ben...

Part I Discovery “I am a rock, I am an Island…” These lyrics by Simon and Garfunkel pretty appropriately summarize what most IT companies would like you to believe about their products. They are islands that stand alone and don’t need any other products to be useful. Well, despite what they want, the truth is closer to the lyrics by the Rolling Stones – “We all need someone we can lean on”. Music history aside, the fact is that interoperability and integration is one of the most important keys t...

The networks that your business operates on are often open and complex. Your IT department is responsible for mitigating network risks, managing performance and auditing data to ensure functionality. Using NetFlow forensics can help your IT team maintain the competitiveness and reliability of the systems required to run your business. In IT, network security forensics involves the monitoring and analysis of your network's traffic to gather information, obtain legal evidence and detect network in...

I’ve been working in the Network Management business for over 20 years, and in that time I have certainly seen my share of networks. Big and small, centralized and distributed, brand name vendor devices in shiny datacenters, and no-name brands in basements and bunkers. The one consistent surprise I continue to encounter is how many of these organization (even the shiny datacenter ones) lack a backup system for their network device configurations. I find that a little amazing, since I also can’t ...

In this Webinar John Olson, from NetFlow Auditor, discusses the top 10 Best Practices for using Netflow data to analyse, report and alert on multiple aspects of Network traffic. These best practices include: Understanding where is the best place in your network to collect netflow data from How long you should retain your flow data Why you should archive more than just the top 100 flows When static thresholds should be replaced by adaptive thresholds More... Thanks to NetFlow Auditor for the...

CIO Review 20 Most Promising Networking Solution Providers Virtualization has become the life blood of the networking industry today. With the advent of technologies such as software-defined networking and network function virtualization, the black box paradigm or the legacy networking model has been shattered. In the past, the industry witnessed networking technology such as Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), which eventually gave way to Ethernet, the predominant network of choice. This p...

So far, we have explored what NCCM is, and taken a deep dive into device policy checking – in this post we are going to be exploring Real Time Configuration Change Detection (or just Change Detection as I will call it in this blog). Change Detection is the process by which your NCCM system is notified - either directly by the device or from a 3rd party system that a configuration change has been made on that device. Why is this important? Let’s identify 3 main reasons that Change Detection is a ...

See Virtual with the Clarity of Physical The cost-saving shift to virtualization has challenged network teams to maintain accurate views. While application performance is often the first casualty when visibility is reduced, the right solution can match and in some cases even exceed the capabilities of traditional monitoring strategies. Virtual Eyes Network teams are the de facto “first responders” when application performance degrades. For this reason, it’s critical to maintain visibility into a...