Network Management What is network management?
Network management is the set of processes and capabilities used to provision, configure, monitor, operate, and maintain a network. A network management system helps ensure the overall reliability, performance, and availability of the network. The widespread adoption of cloud-managed networking for scale, agility, and efficiency has given rise to a wave of innovations in network management, resulting in modern, microservices-based, cloud-native network management platforms.
- Network management explained
- Why is network management important?
- What are the key Network management functions?
- What are current network management challenges?
- Cloud-based vs on-prem network management models
- What are the benefits of cloud-based network management?
- How to migrate to cloud-based network management?
Network management explained
Network management is a multi-functional discipline that enables IT and network operations to ensure the overall reliability, performance, and availability of the network. With digital transformation, there is also an increasing focus on the role of network management in delivering high-quality end-user experiences.
Network management typically involves the following functions outlined by the FCAPS framework:
- Fault management: Detection, isolation and issue resolution to ensure optimal network connectivity and minimize downtime due to undetected anomalies. This is also often referred to as MRT (monitoring, reporting, and troubleshooting).
- Configuration management: Deployment and provisioning of network devices such as access points, switches, and gateways, including the ongoing monitoring of devices for configuration changes.
- Accounting management: Network utilization tracking to document bandwidth consumption by users and lines of business for cost management purposes.
- Performance management: Ongoing compilation and analysis of metrics related to network performance such as response time, packet loss, and throughput to ensure acceptable service levels are maintained. Alerts are generated when acceptable thresholds are breached.
- Security management: Network authorization to ensure only authorized users and devices can access the network resources to which they have rights. Most solutions incorporate capabilities that aid firewall configuration, vulnerability management, and intrusion detection.
HPE Aruba Networking Central provides a broad set of capabilities outlined by the FCAPS network management framework to provision, configure, monitor, and troubleshoot network devices.
How is network management evolving?
Businesses continue to modernize their network management systems to help navigate the challenges outlined above. Key areas of innovations include:
Innovation | Description |
|---|---|
| AIOps and automation | Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) on massive amounts of data (typically in a data lake) proactively derive insights across a range of use cases that increase network reliability, improve mean time to resolution (MTTR), and increase IT efficiency. |
| Flexible consumption | Cloud-based deployment models with support for flexible, subscription-based licensing models offers improved ROI, better financial control, and lower TCO. |
| Programmability | Microservices-based architectures with open, standards-based constructs, API support, and webhooks, enable a high degree of interoperability with other tools in the ecosystem and third-party integrations for IoT, OT, and IT convergence. |
| BYOD and IoT security | Built-in capabilities, such as AI-powered profiling, help address the inherent visibility and security challenges with BYOD and IoT, eliminating network blind spots and improving overall security posture. Security models such as Zero Trust use role-based access policies and ensure that no person or device is inherently trusted. |
| Intent-based networking | Software-defined, GUI-based workflows that automatically convert to CLI-based configurations reduce the complexity of the underlying physical network and express business intent. |
