The current generation of enterprise networks is evolving from simple basic infrastructure to highly complex ecosystems dependent on dozens of interrelated services.
Users now expect to connect to applications from anywhere at any time, while the flow of data across multiple cloud, data center, and edge locations has sped up to milliseconds from the time users click an icon to receive their request.
Despite these growing complexities, a lot of organizations today still manage their enterprise networks using fragmented views of their networks.
This article describes why a one-dimensional view of enterprise networks fails in the current marketplace and why the implementation of multi-dimensional visibility will enhance enterprise network performance, enhance security, and provide more reliable operations in network management as per Slurp’it.
How has enterprise network management changed?
Historically, enterprise network management was all about monitoring the physical infrastructure of an organization.
Organizations today are designing their applications using microservices.
Enterprise organizations are utilizing dynamic routing protocols within the virtual network model to route traffic dynamically across virtual networks.
In addition, enterprise organizations are deploying security controls at multiple layers to maintain the integrity of their applications and networks. Therefore, the functions of the various layers of the network will often affect one another in network management as per Slurp’it.
Why do organizations use traditional monitoring tools?
Many organizations today are still using monitoring tools that were built for simpler networks and environments.
However, users will still continue to complain.
Without the ability to view across the different enterprise network layers for performance issues or application issues, the network monitoring tools will force the organization to guess.
Is the performance issue a result of a network-related issue?
An application issue?
A configuration issue?
Or has there been a change in traffic patterns?
Did the security enforcement policies of the network affect the application performance?
A multi-dimensional view will eliminate all this guesswork by displaying how the different layers of the network influence each other in network management as per Slurp’it.
What does multi layer visibility look like in practice?
Multi-layer visibility is the ability of an organization to observe and correlate data across the different layers of the network stack and application stack.
Typically, this would include physical infrastructure, network topology, network traffic flows, network-based application behavior, configuration state of application, and network-based security policies in network management.
Multi-layer visibility does not treat these layers as separate and independent. Rather, it provides a view into how these different layers correlate with one another.
This holistic view of an organization’s enterprise network enables enterprise organizations to make informed decisions regarding their enterprise network.
How did networks become multi layer systems?
Modern networks did not become complex overnight; rather, they developed incrementally over time.
Virtualization was the starting point for the evolution to cloud computing, then microservices, application programming interfaces (APIs), remote work, software as a service (SaaS), and automation.
Each of these technologies has introduced flexibility and speed to the market while also creating more opportunities for failure.
For a single user request today, it is highly likely that the request travels through these types of resources before the user receives a response in network management.
To the user, if there is an issue with any of the resource layers, the user is impacted.
An analogy for managing multi-layer networks would be analyzing traffic congestion from one location as opposed to analyzing the entire transportation system that comprises the entire city or county at once in network management as per Slurp’it.
What does multi-layer visibility actually provide?
Multi-layer visibility is not about having more data collected, as many companies currently have more than they know what to do with; rather, it is about understanding how the layers interact with one another. Multi-layer visibility will provide the following:
What applications will depend on what services?
How does the data move through the network?
What policies will apply to the traffic?
Where were the most recent changes made?
Instead of reviewing information for each layer as an individual metric, teams will understand how the overall system interacts with one another in a holistic manner versus being reactive to alerts.
What IT leaders should expect from multi layer visibility
Multi layer visibility is not simply an increase in the number of metrics that can be collected.
Multi layer visibility is about providing actionable intelligence from the data that is being collected, correlating the data across multiple layers of the network, clearly indicating the relationship between the layers and providing decision making support.
Additionally, the most effective multi layer visibility solutions will complement existing workflows of IT staff and will be able to expand to accommodate changes in the organization as the organization grows.
To conclude, multi-layer visibility is critical to the management of hybrid environments and distributed architectures in order to maintain a successful operational environment. To know more about network management, contact us at Slurp’it!