Some companies may think dedicated IT network monitoring is something that only large enterprises need. However, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are often targeted by cybercriminals who use the network to gain access to company systems. Once hackers have entered the network undetected, they can move laterally, reaching every part of the system.
All types of companies need IT network monitoring to ensure that the network is performing optimally and securely. Network availability and performance is especially important in this always-on era. Customers and clients expect your company to be there when they need you. The health and security of the network is also crucial as companies move to the cloud and increasingly rely on remote devices and endpoints to conduct business.
Dedicated network monitoring can maximize company uptime and security by optimizing performance and preventing attacks on the network.
Understanding IT Network Monitoring
IT network monitoring continuously surveils and evaluates all the components of a network, including routers, switches, firewalls, and servers, to detect any security or performance problems. Network monitoring can uncover any issues, such as bottlenecks or latency that can compromise availability.
Monitoring also enables companies to detect and respond to lags in performance and other suspicious network activity that may represent a security threat. Threat intelligence can be used to monitor network traffic to identify the signatures of advanced threats, such as ransomware, or unusually high traffic indicative of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Policies can be set for access control across the network to prevent unauthorized access.
With network monitoring, a company can take a proactive approach to handling network issues by identifying and eliminating them before they interrupt workloads or cause data loss and compromise.
Risks of Not Having Dedicated IT Network Monitoring
Not every company can afford to staff a security operations center (SOC) to conduct network monitoring, so many organizations go without. But what happens when companies lack dedicated IT network monitoring?
Insufficient network monitoring gives hackers the advantage of time. Bad actors can exploit gaps in monitoring and logging to stage successful attacks. The longer an attack escapes notice, the more time threats, such as malware, phishing, brute force, and DDoS attacks, get to interrupt service and spread from endpoints, across the network, and through the perimeter.
Without network monitoring, companies lose the opportunity to gain threat intelligence that can be used to recognize emerging threats and prevent future attacks. They also lack the full visibility into the network needed to optimize performance and promote security.
How Dedicated Network Monitoring Works
With dedicated IT network monitoring, your company can achieve continuous monitoring of network performance and traffic patterns using a robust strategy supported by a range of tools. Network monitoring tools include those for network visibility, endpoint protection, intrusion detection and prevention, and identity and access control.
Dedicated network monitoring should include logging and reporting capabilities so your company can leverage information about incidents to prevent future attacks. Alerting and response capabilities will enable your organization to prevent attacks from succeeding and to remediate those that do. Security information and event management (SIEM) will allow your company to log and audit information about security events affecting the network.
To monitor the network, your company should identify essential devices and define the performance metrics that need to be monitored. An interval should be chosen for when to monitor the performance of business-critical devices. Thresholds should be set so alerts can be sent when the network is experiencing bottlenecks or is at a low level of availability.
Choosing the Right IT Network Monitoring Solutions
Monitoring your network can be achieved through more than putting together the right tools. Instead, your company can partner with a managed service provider (MSP) for network monitoring, taking the burden off your in-house IT staff and enabling you to leverage SOC capabilities without the expense of hiring your own staff.
Pegasus Technology Solutions offers Network Monitoring to companies in the Dallas Fort Worth area and beyond as part of our Managed IT Services. Our Network Monitoring and Management services exceed the capabilities of standard monitoring tools to improve your company’s overall security posture.
With Pegasus, you get Managed Detection and Response and a 24/7/365 SOC Team. We not only help prevent cyberattacks, but if a breach does occur, our team can also take immediate action to remediate and mitigate the impact.
Take advantage of enterprise-level network monitoring capabilities. Ask for a proposal from Pegasus for Network Monitoring and Management.
