Network Security: Monitoring and Control of Data Flow on the Network

To keep the network flow smooth and without errors it is important to keep an eye on the traffic that is going in and out of a particular workstation or computer. At a larger level this kind of monitoring is done to check the activities happening on a particular bandwidth either manually by the administrator or in an automated way. Such a monitoring of your network can help you detect any security threat well on time to deal with it. Network administrators can recognise threats to the network security from the external world and also from within.

Having a complete understanding and knowledge about the status of you network can be invaluable for your business. Network monitoring solutions are there only to help you under conditions of infrastructural crises. The crisis can be in any form like non-functioning of the systems, security loophole breaches or even a complete network crash down. The function of monitoring network involves guarding complex environments to minimize problems and optimize data flow to enhance network and system access. A proper monitoring of the network activities can help to reduce costs associated with network performance and infrastructure investments. Monitoring can help resolve slow webpage functions, to retrieve lost e-mails, to identify suspicious user activity, and detect other technical issues like file overloads, crashed servers and unstable network connections.

A timely detection of what needs to be done for networks is very important for any organization, big or small. Network security control should be distinguished from intrusion detection or prevention. Intrusion detection and prevention can recognise an activity from unauthorized users thus saving you the cost of data reversal at a later point. All types of networks can be monitored for the security purpose and uses purpose. Wireless, wired, corporate LANs, VPS or a service provider’s WAN can all be monitored with network monitoring tools. This king of complete monitoring can help any type of business to identify specific activities and establish performance metrics.

Sometimes companies take this issue lightly and believe that all is good as long as the network is up and running. But monitoring is required al all times to maintain overall network health, even if you are not concerned about security issues. It is needed to ensure that the network is available and performing at the highest levels. This not only provides a problem free network but also increase your profitability.

In network monitoring, the professionals require experience and technology to establish and maintain a high level of system performance. They should have all the expertise and tools to be able to look for warning signs and track data moving through servers, switches, routers and connections. There are many software and hardware available today to help the professionals detect network security threats and issues. Given the critical nature of monitoring, companies cannot rely on periodic performance snapshots; instead they need to monitor its networks 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Outsourcing the job of network control and monitoring can be is a viable strategy for many companies as it involves less investment of time and manpower on their part.

Author Bio: Tom Mallet is an Australian freelance writer and journalist. He writes extensively in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the US. He’s published more than 500 articles about various topics, including Network monitoring.