Setting up and managing a network management system is a costly and time-consuming task that requires experienced personnel who know how to conduct troubleshooting such that operations in all departments are performed seamlessly. Most IT companies have their own modified solutions to monitor their networks, while private entities in various fields such as marketing, healthcare, entertainment, and manufacturing use commercial software to manage their network.
Before investing in a network managing tool, consider these six practical tips on tracking and managing your network effectively.
Build a List of Your Most Essential Systems
Walk-through your network infrastructure and create a list of essential components such as servers, switches, antivirus software, distribution switches, and other gadgets that are necessary to keep your system running.
Check the network security systems to see if they function perfectly and your network is safe from new viruses. In the event of a breakdown or breach, your IT staff will use the comprehensive list of your essential systems to ensure these components’ safety first.
Set up a Change Control Procedure
After creating a list of your network’s essential components, you need to develop an ideal change control process for your network. Any time a modification is implemented to the control process, a log must be generated of all the modifications introduced.
Usually, to save time, network administrators will only make necessary adjustments according to past jobs and duplicate the exact processes if they are in a rush. It is easier to manage your network if logs about all modifications are kept and information about individuals who initiated them.
Develop a Map That Has Status Icons
When selecting a tool to control your network, make sure to build maps with status symbols. Add a logo for all gadgets on the essential components inventory. Place this map in the same location where your help or support desk is based. Most networks that have this mapping feature support several icons to display the maps at various locations.
Setup Alerting
Depending on your IT team’s working hours, create call alerts when your support desk is on an automatic call system so that all urgent problems can be resolved on priority grounds. During office hours, all warnings about essential components should be submitted to staff who oversee the troubleshooting tasks and operate on specific applications and servers.
When separate service teams address troubleshooting issues related to network problems, alerts should be delivered to those teams during operating hours for a swift resolution.
Keep Compliance Standards as Required by Regulations
When setting up your network system and deploying network administration tools, review compliance requirements. These compliance standards include Sarbanes Oxley, HIPAA, and PCI maintained on a separate system or existing network. There are two network control schemes in these circumstances, one for network troubleshooting and the other for compliance purposes.
Using a Network Management Device
The easiest and simplest way to manage your network is using network management tool software. These programs will review all the gadgets that are connected to your network and list all of them. This will save a massive amount of time for a company with many devices connected to their network.
Network management is vital in tracking network activity to monitor threats, maximize performance and identify irregularities. With this guide, monitoring and managing your system will not be challenging as you first expected.
