Do You Really Need Enterprise Class Network Management?

This paper begins with an overview of the basic categories of network management products, 随后讨论了一个伟大的企业管理系统的关键特征，以及企业可能准备好企业级解决方案的迹象.

The Goal of Network Management
The ultimate goal of network management is to lower risk, eliminate downtime 和 slowdowns, minimize variability, 和 actively support business expansion. 不依赖于可用和可执行的网络的业务量很小，而且还在缩小. 一个好的网络管理系统是一项不可或缺的资产，它可以保护公司免受会对业务产生重大影响的减速和灾难性中断. But what kind of network management product do you need? Has your network reached the point where enterprise class features are necessary? If so, what does great enterprise network management software 看起来像?

The Network Management L和scape
Network management products typically fall into three basic categories.

免费工具
There are free tools, some of which are basic versions of the above SMB products. 这些通常需要手动将设备加载到系统中，并提供基本级别的ping或SNMP轮询. They provide little to no elemental 表演 data 和 may offer rudimentary events, such as up/down device status. These tools are best suited for small networks of about 20 to 30 devices.

中间SMB
At the next level are low-end to intermediate SMB solutions. Like framework solutions, they involve multiple products 和/or “add-ons” that require at least some integration. 它们通常具有较低的初始价格，并涵盖一系列功能领域，如发现, 库存, 和事件, 和, in intermediate solutions, some level of autodiscovery, 表演, 流, 和 technical reporting or graphing capabilities. Data collected by these products is not as deep as that of enterprise class solutions, although some can be extended through programming. These may be effective products for smaller networks, but as networks scale bottlenecks may occur, especially in those designed with a central database.

Enterprise Class Solution
Enterprise class solutions let you manage the latest technologies 和 devices. 这些产品为所有必要的网络监控功能提供了复杂的功能, including detailed discovery 和 auto-discovery, 库存, events root cause analysis (with features such as downstream event suppression 和 rules), deep elemental 和 流 monitoring, 表演, 拓扑结构, 配置, 和 technical 和 business-focused reports 和 dashboards.

This category includes “legacy” framework solutions, which comprise multiple point products that must be individually integrated 和 maintained. 它还包括“一体化”解决方案，其中所有(或大部分)功能都嵌入到单个软件流中, with limited or no integrations 和 simpler scaling depending on the product’s architecture. Both framework 和 all-in-one enterprise solutions offer unlimited scalability, 尽管一体化解决方案由于其更统一的设计而倾向于减少劳动密集型.

Evaluating Network Management 产品
Many IT directors evaluate network management products without a strategy, often considering a broad mix of free tools, low-end to intermediate SMB products, 和 enterprise class solutions at the same time. That’s like going car shopping 和 looking at a Yugo, a Porsche, 和 a Sherman tank. 它回避了一个问题:你打算用这辆车做什么:从学校接你的孩子(安全车), take your mother-in-law to the hairdresser (cheap car), invade a small country (massive weapon), or race in the Indy 500 (fast car)?

Let’s look more closely at enterprise class. What does that mean, 和 is it for you? Not everyone needs enterprise level network management. If you have a network of only a dozen devices that are all stored in the same closet, you likely don’t need an enterprise solution. Free or SMB tools will suffice. They’ll tell you if the device is up or down in a simple list, 和 if you need to reboot a device, you simply go to the closet 和 turn it off 和 on again.

需要企业级网络管理解决方案的第一个迹象是当网络持续运行非常重要时, but you can no longer draw a picture of your network on a whiteboard. When a network gets to be a few hundred devices or larger, you can no longer completely underst和 it. Therefore, you can no longer troubleshoot it in your head. This is when you need a management solution that can “crawl” the network 和 do it for you.

您应该从企业级网络管理解决方案中获得一些基本功能，这些功能将在下一节中进行概述.

Enterprise-Class Network Management Solution

Discovery of Device Inventory 和 Topology
不能指望您手动将网络设备目录加载到网络管理系统中. It must auto-discover what you have, 和 do so continually. 网络改变. 经常. 此外, it must also discover the 拓扑结构 of the network, not require you to manually input what you think is how the network is connected. This sounds pretty basic, but it’s surprising how many SMB solutions cannot do this.

Root Cause Analysis
低端产品是“红灯/绿灯”产品:它们告诉你什么是上，什么是下, 在列表中. Lists are useful when there are only a dozen or so devices in the network, but when there are hundreds or thous和s of devices, 清单是无用的. You need a solution that not only tells you that something is wrong, but also tells you where the problem is. Dozens of network devices may be unreachable, but there is likely only one that is the true cause of the problem. This is why 拓扑结构 is so important.

表演
A network that’s performing poorly is actually worse than a network that’s down. If your network is down, you go do something else to be productive. If a network is just very slow, you sit in front of your computer waiting for things to happen, wasting time 和 getting frustrated. 一个好的企业级网络管理系统会在设备级别监视网络的性能，同时也会关注应用程序流.

配置
尽管人们普遍认为，网络上90%的问题都是由于有人改变了某些东西而导致的, 值得注意的是，很少有网络管理解决方案将设备配置更改管理集成到其解决方案中. It’s either a “bolt-on” afterthought or it’s completely missing. Network change management is no longer a separate solution. It’s a part of every-day operations.

报告
A management solution is only as good as the information you can get out of it. 每个IT部门都必须向公司的高级管理层(以及他们的客户)证明自己的合理性。. 这意味着他们必须向他们的选民证明他们正在提供他们所承诺的十大赌博正规老平台. Different “客户” want to see data at different levels of technical complexity, 良好的网络管理系统使他们能够轻松地创建和查看适当的仪表板，并在CIO级别创建报告, as well as at the technical user level.

Service Level Monitoring
You can think just of managing components: how they interrelate, how they’re connected, 他们的健康, 等等......, 但是对这些组件进行分组并将其作为十大赌博正规老平台进行监视，以满足sla和/或确保最终用户的需求得到满足才是最重要的.

对于大型网络来说，十大赌博正规老平台级别的监控尤为重要，因为在大型网络中，您无法再在头脑中跟踪每个组件. In larger networks, 了解每个组件的业务相关性意味着您必须能够将它们作为协同工作以交付十大赌博正规老平台的子组件进行监视.

Proactive Management
企业级网管系统能够在您出现问题之前发出警告. Lower-end tools tell you that something has gone wrong after the fact. This is not acceptable for mission-critical networks. 企业级管理解决方案会告诉您一些事情，比如核心路由器上的辅助电源出现故障，而您正在运行主路由器, or the temperature on this switch is rising 和 the fan is failing—at this rate, it will overheat tomorrow. Issues are identified before they become problems.

Intelligent Event Management
As data grows, so do the problems that accompany it. An enterprise-level business will produce far more data than any network engineer can h和le, threatening to overwhelm them with alert storms. But for the most accurate insight into the network’s operations, you need all of that data, as well as comprehensive categorization of events far beyond a simple ‘up/down’ status. 企业网络管理软件将理解这片浩瀚的数据海洋，并将噪音减少到一个可管理的数量，显示需要看到的内容, without engineers having to sift through to find the most important issues.

Technology-friendly
It’s not just network size 和 distribution that is growing, but also the sophistication of the technology 和 protocols that keep the network running. As data 和 service dem和s increase, more technologies are required to keep an eye on how your network is functioning. 然而, because of scaling 和 resource issues, 针对小型企业的网络管理工具将无法覆盖与企业解决方案相同程度的复杂性. 高端企业网络管理解决方案可以提供一系列关键的流量监控技术, NBAR, SDN和云, 举几个例子. 这些只会变得越来越普遍，因此对确保卓越的网络性能至关重要.

机器学习
Though not yet mature, 机器学习代表了下一代技术，它将帮助网络工程师保持网络的运行. It is part of the current trend, embodied by methodologies such as AIOps, that employs technology in a capacity to assist 和 augment the human in their work. Big data has long exceeded the capacities of any human analytics, 因此，企业网络管理软件现在提供基于机器的分析，以提高网络运营中心人员的准确性和生产力. 机器学习可以帮助网络团队从描述性和预测性分析转向规定性分析模型, where tools can help prescribe actions in the face of multiple future outcomes.

“对大型网络来说，十大赌博正规老平台级别的监控尤其重要，因为你无法再在脑海中跟踪每一个组件. In larger networks, 了解每个组件的业务相关性意味着您必须能够将它们作为协同工作以交付十大赌博正规老平台的子组件进行监视.”

Automation 和 Device Support
A lot of this comes down to automation. Lower-end tools require you to manually control individual device settings, 启动报告, 和 load information into them. When you have a network of 10,000 devices, this is not an option. You need a network management system that automatically tracks your network 库存, runs regularly scheduled (和 previously defined) reports, monitors 和 alerts on 表演 thresholds, 和 determines the root cause of problems.

There’s another issue that needs to be considered: device support. 低端产品并没有真正深入挖掘网络库存，因为它们没有跟踪设备的性能或管理下的特定状态. They simply report that the device is responding or not responding. But higher order management products go into great depth of device underst和ing. When a network vendor comes out with a new device, the enterprise class managers need to add detailed support for that new device.
不幸的是, 硬件供应商不必询问软件管理供应商他们的发布时间表是什么，然后与他们同步. 询问网络管理供应商为新发布的设备添加支持需要多长时间是很重要的.

Finally, there is the issue of operation. All this functionality needs to be usable, not just available. The product needs to be easily installed, quickly learned, 和 integrated in a cohesive whole.