How new IT managers can effectively manage their networks

Before strengthening security and managing networks, enterprises should first recognize the current situation of their networks. Although this seems simple, not every IT manager is familiar with its network situation due to years of development of the company and changes in the IT management team. Do you really know your enterprise network? This problem sounds ridiculous. How can a manager not understand the enterprise's network. But do you know the specific location, purchase date, and elimination date of each of your network devices?

With years of development and technological updates of enterprises, network devices are constantly being upgraded. Meanwhile, enterprises are acquiring, merging, restructuring, and other business activities, it will bring a complete set of completely different network devices, independent offices and teams to the enterprise network. For the above reasons, many enterprises do not have a clear network device and network structure.

In this case, how can enterprises ensure security and manage networks?

Amtrak's IT manager Phil Young said: "In terms of network environments, corporate CIOs are not faced with understanding the core systems and applications of enterprises, instead, you must keep abreast of the dynamics of various network devices, such as printers, PDAs, and remote hubs. Although enterprises can monitor the network through policies and 'sniffer 'tools, the changed network environment is sometimes ignored by administrators and has a negative impact on the security of the enterprise's network ."

Simon Perry of CA believes that although many enterprises are concerned about network security, a large number of unconfirmed network devices will be added to the enterprise network in the short term, which will greatly compromise the original security measures of the enterprise.

He said: "One of the basic problems is that enterprises should not only know the number and type of network devices added after the purchase, but also what services are running on these devices, what role does it assume on the network. This is the key to determining the final network vulnerability ."

Based on McAfee's Greg Day experience, it is not easy to quickly master a large network.

To explain his point of view, Day presents a company he once worked for as an example. The company has over 0.1 million nodes or terminals on its network. "IT took several months for the company's IT staff to figure out how many routers, switches, PCs, and laptops the entire enterprise network has, number of network printers and IP phones."

This information collection and sorting process is very important and fundamental for future network management, because if administrators do not know what devices are in the network, let alone how to manage the information.

Day said: "It takes some time to accumulate, and then you can find some new IP addresses in the network in time, knowing that the new system is running the XP system, however, it does not mark the Enterprise Asset tags and whether to take measures against them. However, it is not certain whether the XP system or other devices connected to the network can bring potential threats to the network ."

This uncertainty brings difficulties to effective network management.

If you are a new IT manager of an enterprise, the most difficult thing to face is to know how to start and what to do in a completely unfamiliar network environment.

Paul Broome, CTO of 192.com, said: "Today's enterprise networks are changing fast. I suggest you perform a comprehensive network check every month to see what changes have taken place ."

This monthly routine check can well hold the latest data on the asset list and asset management, and is also the only way to keep abreast of any changes in the enterprise network within a month.

But Broome also said that even if a very effective method is used to achieve this goal, it still causes conflicts and troubles between enterprises managing new servers and services and supporting their daily production work.

"If an enterprise does not establish a worksheet or reasonably deploy the device in advance, it is difficult to perform good network management," he said ."

However, deploying technologies that are not easy for IT department management makes network management more difficult. CA's Perry said that wireless networks are such an example that employees often access some wireless network devices without notifying the IT management department.

Perry said: "I used to go to a company for network management. At that time, the company manager told me that they didn't have a wireless network, and when I really checked their network, however, we can see wireless network connections."

"The biggest question about wireless networks is whether enterprises know that they have wireless networks ."

Luke Mellors, CIO of Expotel, said that many modern enterprise networks are connected to third-party networks and assets.

He said: "One of the biggest reasons that affects enterprise IT managers in obtaining accurate network asset maps and topologies is the lack of Network-related information, it also supports complex network connections for business and business continuity. Almost no enterprise isolates a continuous network environment. When we consider the actual network of an enterprise, we often find that the enterprise outsourced some components or functions. In this way, a node appears in the enterprise network management, crossing this node, IT should be the maintenance part of the outsourcers, so it managers can hardly obtain a very accurate and complete network asset diagram."

James Governor, analyst at Red Monk, believes that the management problems caused by outsourcing have exceeded the management problems caused by the increasing IT assets. With the popularization of Web2.0 and social networks, people now say that "Networks" are no longer the networks mentioned previously.

He said: "In the past 10, 15, and 20 years, we have established a device-centric network, which is changing to a human-centered Network. At present, we need to manage not only network devices, but also people ." People need to access the network anytime, anywhere, and obtain and carry the data they want as needed. More importantly, people need to interact through complex networks.

Governor said: "network management requires completely different skills. Compared with the previous methods of blocking and controlling network management, the current network is no longer that simple to block and control ."

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