Unfiltered data flood The market offers a variety of tools for monitoring network traffic. This is no surprise, as they offer an efficient way of identifying errors early and taking appropriate action. If a user reports a problem to the IT department, valuable time has generally already pass that could have been used to remedy the problem. The more complex the problem, the longer it takes to determine the cause. Good IT administration recognizes problems actively and not only when complaints are receive. The situation becomes more dramatic when it comes to security incidents, because these are often not even recognize by the user.
Network monitoring makes it possible to monitor the various hardware and software components of a network in real time. It gives system administrators insights into performance, connections, availability, current usage and security. The corresponding tools monitor physical devices such as servers, routers , switches or firewalls, the availability of applications and services as well as virtualiz environments. From this they generate myriads of data that they make available to the administrator. Modern network monitoring solutions provide the require dashboards and are individually customizable.
Threat analysis enables problem-orient response
But this flood of data is the crux of such systems. They generate so much information that it can overwhelm the administrator if it is not provided in a suitable way to make it usable. This leads to Saudi Arabia Phone Number Lists another problem that companies face today: the availability of suitable personnel who are able to interpret the data in order to take necessary actions. And this is lacking across the board. The mere provision of data is then counterproductive and tends to lead to fatigue in the face of a flood of information and alerts, which can develop into a significant risk.
Easy installation, easy usability
It is the task of the developers of appropriate monitoring tools to counteract this and provide tools that help to deal with the flood of data in practice. Administrators need concrete information about where a problem is occurring and how to deal with it. So what requirements must a network monitoring solution meet in order to meet these demands?
The wheat is separated from the chaff during installation. Modern network monitoring solutions can be installed out-of-the-box and already come with the necessary dashboards to display the infrastructure and monitor performance and security. Ideally, such a system can be set up within a day.
Even if this creates the basis for gaining insight into network activity and ensuring alerting and reporting, most companies will want to make their own adjustments. To do this, the tool must allow cell phone number listing user-specific definitions of dashboards. This includes, for example, the ability to switch from a high-level view to a detailed view with one click. This top-down functionality makes it possible to switch from an overall view down to individual ports, interfaces or IP addresses. In this context, it is also necessary for the tool to be able to quickly filter any data from any source for each dashboard, which in practice requires big data functionality.
Not data, but answers
NetFlow has become the de facto standard for monitoring network traffic . Its great advantage is that it provides information about every communication that has taken place, whether it is an exchange of large amounts of data or individual packets between parties. NetFlow records each direction of flow separately and Bulk Database therefore also leaves a trace of unidirectional transmissions or, as in the case of a network scan by potential attackers, of failed connection attempts. Net Flow represents an extremely valuable source for security monitoring when this data is correlate and condense.
In order not to be overwhelm by the sheer volume of data, the administrator must be able to define parameters and set appropriate values in the relevant detection methods. This means that if the network traffic is correct and the client establishes valid sessions, no alarm is trigger. If, however, the communication contains patterns that indicate a deviation from standards. The system triggers an alert in such a situation and informs the administrator about the event itself and its details. An important step in containing the flood of data and increasing the usability of the system.
