Keeping up with your hybrid network can be overwhelming. Nowadays, a mixture of on and off premise technology is the new normal. Users are accessing the network and applications from various locations. The network is stretched well beyond the data center and users are accessing applications from the cloud.
IT teams are constantly spinning plates. It’s only a matter of time before something breaks.
Keep the plates spinning with NPM
So, what can you do to keep the network spinning? Strengthen your network to be more adaptable and responsive, delivering a better digital experience to your organization’s employees and users. This is business resilience.
A solid prevention or contingency plan for a possible damaging event truly tests the mettle of IT teams. Readiness for all possible negative scenarios seems an impossible task. Business resilience is crucial for companies to adapt and recover quickly from unexpected disruptions, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, or economic downturns.
In today’s digital world, network performance management (NPM) plays a critical role in ensuring that objective. By effectively managing network performance, compliance, and security, companies can build a more resilient network infrastructure.
Three focus areas for business resilience
Network performance management is the process of monitoring and optimizing the performance of a company’s network infrastructure. Here are the key areas of focus for business resilience in the context of network performance management:
Performance
Performance is the cornerstone of network performance management. Effective monitoring, testing, and optimization of the network can help identify and resolve performance issues, such as bottlenecks, latency, or packet loss. Ensuring that the network is performing optimally can help avoid disruptions and provide a consistent user experience.
Compliance
In today’s regulatory environment, compliance is a critical concern for businesses. Compliance requirements vary depending on the industry and the region, but they all aim to protect the privacy and security of sensitive data. NPM can help ensure compliance with organizational or governmental regulations by providing visibility into network traffic, monitoring access controls, and delivering oversight and data management.
Security
With the increasing sophistication of cyberattacks, security is a top priority for businesses. A security breach can lead to data theft, financial losses, and reputational damage. NPM can help secure the network by monitoring for unusual traffic patterns, provides forensic analysis, and delivers granular network data for quick response and troubleshooting.
How to build resilience into NPM
To build resilience into network performance management, businesses need to take a proactive and holistic approach. Here are five best practices:
- Develop a comprehensive network performance management strategy: This should include clear objectives, metrics, and processes for monitoring and optimizing network performance, compliance, and security.
- Invest in the right tools and technologies: Effective network performance management requires the right tools, such as network monitoring hardware/software that focusses on packet capture, flow monitoring and device metrics. Businesses need to evaluate their needs and choose the tools that best fit their requirements.
- Automate routine tasks: Automation can help reduce manual effort (and mistakes from human intervention) and improve efficiency. This includes automating network configuration and patch management, as well as implementing machine learning and artificial intelligence to detect and resolve issues.
- Build a culture of security: Security is everyone’s responsibility. Businesses need to educate employees on security best practices, establish clear security policies and procedures, and regularly test and audit their security measures.
- Continuously monitor and adapt: The network environment is constantly changing. Businesses need to continuously monitor network performance, compliance, and security, and adapt their strategies and tools to keep up with the evolving threat landscape.
So in order to keep the plates spinning, NPM has to be a critical component of business resilience. By focusing on performance, compliance, and security, businesses can build a more resilient network infrastructure that can withstand unexpected disruptions and provide a secure and consistent user experience.
For more information on business resilience and how the Riverbed Network Performance Management portfolio can help your organization, please visit this page.