Network Visibility for Dummies
The evolution of networks may have brought agility to the enterprises but it has also attracted all kinds of cyber threats.
Even with the Superman’s X-ray vision you couldn’t see through a network or detect an anomaly. However, this isn’t the DC universe and you don’t wear a cape for a living. In addition to this you have human vision hence, network visibility might be your only hope against the ever-looming cyber threats.
Before we discuss why it is the ultimate solution to the complexities caused by the enterprise network evolution, let us understand what network visibility is.
What is Network Visibility?
The definition is rather simple. It’s a tool used by the network administrators to monitor network traffic, applications, performance, network resource management as well as big data analytics among other things.
Why do you need this tool?
Let me put it this way, Darth Vader could have easily avoided a droid hacking into the Death Star’s database, had he used a network visibility tool. Despite Star Wars being a fictional analogy, if R2D2 (a tin-looking droid) could slice into Death Star’s database to locate Han Solo and Princess Leia, chances of a breach in your network are a lot higher.
Human’s are a lot smarter than droids after-all.
The rebels Alliance’s efforts to steal the plans from the moon sized Death Star battle station saw the light of the day only because Darth Vader despite being the evil genius lacked the proper network visibility tools. In the hindsight, we can either blame the era and age or George Lucas for not ‘incepting’ the idea of network visibility in Vader’s mind.
Either way, the lack of network visibility became Death Star’s doom. Surely, you can do a lot better.
The reason why network visibility is the need of the hour is pretty obvious by now. The evolved networks cause evolved problems. Yes, network attacks have grown over the decade, in terms of both the frequency and the volume. Network blind spots have become a major problem for enterprises. According to a recent survey, as many as two-thirds of the enterprises find blind spots most challenging when it comes to protecting their data.
Many a times, these enterprises do not have sufficient information to be able to identify the potential threats. Most of them do not even have a fully deployed comprehensive program to either spot or take action against a security breach.
If your enterprise is one of the two-thirds, well, network visibility tools eliminate those factors. They help a user identify malicious behaviors and take action against those threats through real-time, end-to-end visibility. With visibility, you can better detect when someone gains unauthorized access to your enterprise network. Not only does it allow security measures to respond quickly but also helps detect malware hidden within the encrypted network traffic. Once the anomalous behavior has been detected, you can start troubleshooting without wasting a considerable amount of time.
Thus, network visibility is a solution that provides insights about a user’s whereabouts related to specific information. You could say, the better the visibility, the easier it is to make network-related decisions and cut the expenditure on bandwidth. It’s like a wand that let’s you cast spells. You can do wonders with an in-depth visibility, from faster and timely trouble-shooting and detection of unauthorized WAN traffic to predicting network growth trends and making informed and wise decisions.
