Network management is the process, tools, and applications used to administer, operate and maintain network infrastructure. It enables businesses to keep their networks running efficiently and with sufficient capacity to accommodate the demands of their employees.
It also helps protect the business from security breaches that could lead to data losses and other damaging consequences. It ensures that network devices are correctly configured, backed up regularly, and updated efficiently. The network management processes, tools, and applications include configuration management, performance management, and fault analysis.
Configuration management manages the configuration of network equipment and the software that runs on them. This involves tracking and managing the settings of each device, making sure that no changes are made without authorization, and ensuring that firmware and software updates are deployed centrally.
Performance management monitors the network’s performance by monitoring the traffic that flows over each circuit. This includes measuring bandwidth load, delays, packet loss, and CPU usage for each device or interface. SNMP, WMI, and other protocols are used to collect and report these metrics.
It can help identify issues by sending alerts to managers when an unusual event occurs, such as a device disconnection or breached threshold. These alerts should be customizable to provide network managers with only the most essential information.
Fault management is another element of network management that is designed to detect errors as they occur and correct them as quickly as possible. It relies on ICMP pings, SNMP Traps, and Syslog to notify the network manager of any errors that have occurred.
A wide variety of things can cause these errors, including routers that send garbage messages to other computers, switches that have physical failures that interrupt transmission, or a phone cable that breaks and prevents signals from being sent. Once the network manager recognizes a problem, they must isolate it and fix it before it interferes with other activities.
Network management is essential to keep a business running smoothly, and it is an ongoing process that requires constant attention and maintenance. A sluggish or unreliable network can negatively affect a business’s productivity and profitability. This is especially true if the network is responsible for storing and exchanging sensitive information.