What Is Network Management?

Network management is the process of orchestrating network traffic and data flow across the enterprise ecosystem using network monitoring, network security, network automation, and other tools hosted on-premise or on the cloud.

The primary purpose of network management is to deliver a secure, reliable, and high-performing network to end-users, including business users in the enterprise and end customers. Network management was always a crucial part of the IT task list, and it has become even more critical in the wake of COVID-19. Distributed companies primarily rely on network management to keep different enterprise functions and teams connected. Network management is also responsible for managing data flow in and out of different host environments such as on-premise servers, private clouds, and public cloud platforms.

According to the International Standards Organization (ISO), there are five types of network management to look after the entire spectrum of network-related processes. These types are fault, configuration, accounting, performance, and security management, commonly referred to as FCAPS. Let us explore what network management entails.

• Network fault management: You can have a designated network fault management team to anticipate, detect, and resolve network faults to minimize downtime. In addition to fault resolution, this function is responsible for logging fault information, maintaining records, conducting analysis, and aiding in regular audits.
  There needs to be clear channels so that the network fault management team can report back to the network administrator to maintain transparency. It will also work closely with the end-user in case they report faults.
• Network configuration management: Network configurations are a key aspect of performance. These configurations are expected to change dynamically to keep up with data and traffic demands in a large enterprise. An example of a network configuration management task is an IT professional remotely altering the connectivity settings to boost performance.
  Network configuration management relies heavily on automation so that the team does not need to manually look up configuration requirements and can provision changes automatically instead. Like network fault management, the network configuration management team must also keep detailed records of all changes, their outcomes, and issues, if any.
• Network accounting and utilization management: As network requirements evolve, employees will consume more network resources and add to enterprise costs. The network accounting management team monitors utilization, finds anomalies, and tracks utilization trends for different departments, business functions, office locations, online products, or even individual users.
  In some businesses (especially digital service providers), network accounting management is directly linked to profitability. For example, an ecommerce company might need to track network utilization and benchmark against profitability during peak and lull periods. In large enterprises, network accounting management is a shared service organization that leases network resources to different branches and subsidiaries to maintain an internal profit margin.

• Network performance management: This is one of the most central aspects of network management. Network performance management involves various tasks that help boost network uptime, service availability, and concurrent bandwidth speeds. Here too, automation plays a major role.
  A singular dashboard is connected to various network components that monitor performance KPIs and raises an alert if a threshold is breached. For example, the network performance management team might want to map network response times 24/7 to avoid impacting the end-user experience. If there is an anomaly, the network performance management team will work closely with the network fault management team to resolve the issue.

• Network security management: As most enterprise processes move online, network security is vital for resilience, risk management, and success. For example, 68% of enterprises as surveyed by Telia Carrier in 2020 faced a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack last year.
  In a DDOS attack, multiple connected online devices target an enterprise website with fake traffic to block legitimate traffic. Network security management involves protecting a system against these and other issues. An enterprise network also generates a regular stream of logs analyzed by the network security management team to find any threat fingerprints.

Depending on your business's size and nature, you may have designated teams or personnel looking after every kind of network management. A large, distributed, and multinational enterprise will typically have a team assigned to each type of activity. Specific business horizontals could set up teams for one type of network management and group the rest into a shared function.

The importance of network management has steadily grown in the last few years, along with its challenges. For instance, the Enterprise Management Associates' Network Management Megatrends 2020 report found that one in three issues are detected and reported by end users before the network management team is aware of them. Fragmentation in the network management toolkit is also a concern, with 64% of enterprises using 4-10 tools to troubleshoot their networks.

A robust network management function can help address these challenges while keeping network costs in check and driving performance to support the business. To achieve this, network management teams rely on a set of discrete components.