The days of time-consuming troubleshooting and manual exploration of IT systems are coming to an end. Monitoring tools are getting better and more sophisticated for sure, and asset solutions can discover more technology than ever before. However, without an assurance tool, it can be difficult to know if you are seeing 100% of your devices and systems.
In the past, IT professionals had to spend a lot of time manually exploring their systems in order to identify and fix problems. Think about a firewall change that didn't work, a planned change that fixed one thing and broke another. This was a time-consuming and an often frustrating process that required a lot of expertise and experience. For example, modern monitoring tools use artificial intelligence and machine learning to automatically identify and diagnose problems, and they can even suggest and apply solutions. This means that IT professionals can spend less time troubleshooting and more time working on other important tasks.
Moreover, asset solutions are also getting better and can now discover more technology than ever before. This means that IT professionals can now easily identify and manage all of the devices and systems on their network, including those that are not actively being used.
Despite the many technological advancements, detecting and monitoring all devices and communications can still be challenging, especially with the increasing use of cloud and extended networks. This is where an assurance tool can make all the difference. By validating the accuracy of your monitoring and asset solutions, an assurance tool ensures that you are capturing a complete view of all devices and communication paths on your network. Unlike traditional approaches that focus on metrics or serial numbers, assurance tools take a holistic approach that analyses relationships and paths to create a cohesive story of your network.
In addition, an assurance tool can assist in detecting and resolving any problems with your monitoring and asset solutions, ensuring that your network is operating at its full potential. With the ability to visualize your network's historical performance, assurance tools bring your network to life and enable you to travel back in time to any point in the past. By providing this invaluable insight, assurance tools help you to gain a comprehensive understanding of your network and to make informed decisions that drive your organization forward.
In conclusion, monitoring tools and asset solutions have come a long way in recent years, making IT troubleshooting and exploration much easier and more efficient. But, without an assurance tool, it can be difficult to know if you are seeing 100% of your devices. What if some devices do not have netflow, syslog or snmp enabled? They are unreachable by asset or monitoring tools. How will you know this, an assurance tool.
If your answer is NO to all of the following FIVE questions, what might you be missing?
Can you accurately anticipate the impact of complex network changes by validating the current configuration and predicting the outcome, including identifying the affected devices?
When dealing with complex network issues, can you determine the precise location and configuration responsible for the problem, including identifying the relevant device(s)?
When verifying company-wide QoS/DSCP settings that regulate voice and video quality in collaboration tools, can you confidently identify which devices have the correct configurations and which need to be updated?
Do your current tools possess the ability to identify and alert you to suspicious or outdated configurations that may compromise network security, such as open ports or communication vulnerabilities that should have been closed?
Can you guarantee that your outsourced network is being managed properly by your MSP, including the ability to validate and question changes across all devices and clouds?
Want to know more? We will be more than happy to help. Assurance tools are fast and relatively easy to deploy, results are immediate. We can help package this into a one off engagement or provide via a fully managed service.
Email the team at hello@visibilityplatforms.com to get started. More about our Network Assurance Services.