The Monitoring Dilemma:

 

Is Your Networking Monitoring Strategy Still A Silo-ed One?

 

Monitoring has been always like the step child with the networking team; sometimes it’s a long battle to figure out which team will be responsible for funding a network monitoring initiative; security, business or networking. If we somehow figure out the funding part, the next question is, do we require it, and aren’t my SNMP tools and other freeware which does basic checks, not enough ?

 

Well, its time for a reality check; time to really rethink the monitoring strategy that most of the companies have been, in some way ignoring for a long time or not having enough focus on this critical aspect of the networking that can provide more value for every dollar you spend on it.

 

Most of the time we understand the criticality of proper network monitoring solution only after going through a network attack or experiencing a major network outage. So it’s time to ask your network administrators:

1. What’s our Strategy on Networking Monitoring?
2. Can we proactively detect issues before it becomes a real threat?
3. How long of an outage can we sustain without revenue loss? Is it worth the loss?

Just as an example, let’s recap some of the losses we have seen in the industry due to lack of a proper monitoring tool. Again, these are just few examples of many out there.

 

Sony Loss: $171 million 2011

 

Sony is by far the most famous recent security attack. After its PlayStation network was shut down by LulzSec, Sony reportedly lost almost $171 million. The hack affected 77 million accounts and is still considered the worst gaming community data breach ever. Attackers stole valuable information: full names, logins, passwords, e-mails, home addresses, purchase history, and credit card numbers.

 

Citigroup Loss: 2. $2.7 million 2011

 

Citigroup was not a difficult target for hackers. They exploited a basic online vulnerability and stole account information from 200,000 clients. Because of the hacking, Citigroup said it lost $2.7 million. Just a few months before the attack, the company was affected by another security breach. It started at Epsilon, an email marketing provider for 2,500 large companies including Citigroup. Specialists estimated that the Epsilon breach affected millions of people and produced an overall $4 billion loss.

 

Stratfor Loss: 3. $2 million 2012

 

Last Christmas wasn’t so joyful for Stratfor Global Intelligence. Anonymous members hacked the US research group and published confidential information from 4,000 clients, threatening they could also give details about 90,000 credit card accounts. The hackers stated that Stratfor was “clueless…when it comes to database security”. According to the criminal complaint, the hack cost Stratfor $2 million.

 

The million dollar questions for the CFO/CTO; can you afford to make the same mistake again.

 

Benefits of a Well Designed Monitoring Solution

 

Self-Defending Networks

 

Monitoring can help detect failure or abnormality before they really becomes an issue, administrators can be notified through emails, texts, emails or a network message. Administrators will be notified of any problem on the network allowing them to remediate the network immediately. Lack of a proper network monitoring solution, force them to manually examine the network or wait for the issue to be reported for them to work on a remedy.

 

Better Replacement Strategy

 

Monitoring enables you to study a persistent problem much closer. If a piece of hardware is constantly tripping, it may be the time to plan a change. The same would apply for a constant crashing service if a service or a particular application is frequently crashing, it might be a good idea to look into troubleshooting the application.

 

Self-Healing Networks by Proactively Diagnose Issues

 

Monitoring enables you with a proactive approach without which you may not be able to predict the problem before poses a real threat. Network monitoring will help you pinpoint the root of failure, saving you time and money when having to diagnose the problem.

 

Reporting Issues

 

Monitoring reports can help you spot trends in system performance, demonstrate the need for upgrades or replacements and prove your value, by documenting the otherwise ‘unseen’ work that keeps the IT systems you manage, in top form.

 

Remediation of problems, anytime, anywhere

 

Monitoring products provides web based single pane of glass administration; most of the time. These offer support for any server or workstation in your environment. Apart from providing a much faster service, web based access also saves you a lot time/money without having to commute to branch offices or customer sites.

 

Ensure Up-time

 

Monitoring optimizes network availability by monitoring all aspects of your network, including servers, workstations and network devices and applications. Whenever a failure is detected, you will immediately be notified through alerts allowing you to take remediation action in a highly efficient manner.

 

Safe Guarding Revenue Loss by Preventing Outage

 

Monitoring products identifies issues faster with instant alerts, pin point root causes, eliminate the need for manual checks on event logs, backup systems, antivirus systems, hard disks and other devices. Having a network monitoring solution avoids the need of complex and expensive systems. All this in turn facilitates cost saving by preventing outages.