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How can you identify the most critical network devices and services to monitor?

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Network monitoring is a vital part of IT operations management, as it helps you ensure the availability, performance, and security of your network infrastructure. However, not all network devices and services are equally important, and monitoring them all can be costly, complex, and overwhelming. How can you identify the most critical network devices and services to monitor, and prioritize them according to your business needs and goals? In this article, we will share some tips and best practices to help you answer this question.

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Alexander Ljungstr?m

Founder @ Einar & Partners | AIOps & ITOM Strategy

1 Define your business objectives and KPIs

Before you start monitoring your network, it is essential to understand your desired outcomes and how you will measure your success. This involves defining your business objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) for your network operations. For instance, some common objectives and KPIs are minimizing network downtime and ensuring business continuity, optimizing network performance and user experience, detecting and preventing security threats and incidents, reducing network operating costs and increasing efficiency, as well as complying with industry standards and regulations. By defining these objectives and KPIs, it is possible to align your network monitoring strategy with your business goals, while focusing on the devices and services that support them.

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Alexander Ljungstr?m

Founder @ Einar & Partners | AIOps & ITOM Strategy
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One often forgotten KPI and objective is "Monitoring Coverage". Not all services are critical and treated equally. In order to define KPI's and objectives, one also has to take into account the data quality and reliability of the CMDB. Assuming a somewhat decent source of truth, one of the most important KPI's are coverage from an observability perspective. Do we have all the critical devices monitored? How do we know if a device falls out of monitoring? How complete is "complete" depending on the criticality of a service? In other words, leverage KPI's to ensure complete monitoring coverage - which in and of itself is an objective.

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2 Map your network topology and dependencies

Once you have your objectives and KPIs, you need to map your network topology and dependencies, which means identifying and documenting all the devices and services that make up your network, and how they interact with each other. This will help you comprehend the structure, function, and interconnections of your network components, as well as how they affect your network performance and availability. For instance, some common network devices and services are routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, servers, applications, databases, web services, network protocols, ports, interfaces, users, groups, roles, and permissions. By mapping your network topology and dependencies, you can recognize the devices and services that are essential for your network operations and how they influence your objectives and KPIs.

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Alexander Ljungstr?m

Founder @ Einar & Partners | AIOps & ITOM Strategy
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Mapping network topologies (infrastructure services) and dependencies may be two very different things. For infrastructure services, it's optimal to use things like L2/L3 layer connections, CDP neighbours, routing tables and other data to draw out a complete picture of Core Switches, Distributions Switches, Access points etc. Often attaching ISP links and locations is a winning recipe. For other dependencies, I have seen best success in either utilizing TCP/IP and netflow traffic to build out dependencies and topologies. Alternatively tag-based approaches (for example in DevOps/cloud environments) to build out topologies. Ultimately tho, the infrastructure services should be correlated to the application dependency landscape.

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3 Assess your network risks and impacts

After you have mapped your network topology and dependencies, it is important to assess your network risks and impacts. This means evaluating and quantifying the potential threats and vulnerabilities that can affect your network devices and services, as well as the consequences of their failure or compromise. Doing so will help you prioritize your network monitoring efforts based on the severity and likelihood of the risks, and the magnitude and frequency of the impacts. For example, some common risks and impacts are network outages that disrupt business operations or customer satisfaction, network breaches that compromise security or data privacy, network inefficiencies that increase operating costs or complexity, and non-compliance issues that expose your network to legal or regulatory issues. Assessing your network risks and impacts can help you identify which devices and services are most vulnerable or valuable for your network operations, as well as how they affect your objectives and KPIs.

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David A. Lamkin

Transformative IT Executive | Empowering Organizations with Advanced Cybersecurity & Cloud Solutions | Driving Operational Excellence & Compliance Through Strategic Leadership
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Assessing network risks is paramount in steering clear of operational disruptions and security breaches. It involves a thorough analysis of network topology and recognizing potential vulnerabilities that could trigger significant setbacks, from data breaches to compliance violations. By understanding these risks, one can strategically prioritize monitoring and defenses, focusing on areas with severe potential impacts or high failure probabilities. This proactive approach not only fortifies network security but also optimizes resource allocation, ensuring that vital aspects influencing business objectives and KPIs receive the attention they warrant.

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4 Choose your network monitoring tools and methods

Finally, you need to select and implement the appropriate software and hardware solutions for your network monitoring. This will help optimize your efficiency and effectiveness, as well as provide actionable insights and recommendations. Common network monitoring tools and methods include NPM tools that measure performance metrics such as speed, latency, bandwidth, and throughput; NAM tools that check uptime, reliability, redundancy, and failover capabilities; NSM tools that detect threats, vulnerabilities, attacks, and incidents; and NCM tools that manage settings, policies, changes, and backups. By choosing the right network monitoring tools and methods, you can monitor the devices and services relevant to your network operations and how they affect your objectives and KPIs.

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5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How can you identify the most critical network devices and services to monitor?

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3

4

5

1 Define your business objectives and KPIs

2 Map your network topology and dependencies

3 Assess your network risks and impacts

4 Choose your network monitoring tools and methods

5 Here’s what else to consider

IT Operations Management

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How can you identify the most critical network devices and services to monitor?

1

2

3

4

5

1 Define your business objectives and KPIs

2 Map your network topology and dependencies

3 Assess your network risks and impacts

4 Choose your network monitoring tools and methods

5 Here’s what else to consider

IT Operations Management

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