Cloud-based Software for Your Network Management

Cloud is everywhere. It stores data. It synchronizes emails, contacts, appointments, and pictures. It ensures smooth functioning of business apps. With its over-the-network services, cloud computing technology has increased the pace of businesses to respond to evolving customer needs.

In fact, companies are gradually adopting cloud software and tools to manage and monitor IT infrastructure. They no longer rely on on-premises network management solutions because of certain limitations. This means cloud-based network management software and tools have become a critical asset to prevent businesses from network outages. This, in turn, help businesses maximizing up time and overall productivity.

What is Cloud-based Network Management?

Network management is the process of managing a network for the purpose of security and performance using a variety of software and tools. When cloud gets involved, the entire network (physical hardware and computing resources) resides in the cloud environment. And this will provide connectivity between applications and resources. Cloud-based network management software can enable organizations to deliver content more quickly, reliably, and securely without worrying about building and operating their own network.

For example, Icreon client, ASTM, an International Standards Organizations, uses Microsoft Azure Cloud platform to add new tools and platforms to connect all ASTM properties together. The platform ensures high availability of the system and offers the flexibility to ramp up the business capacity as when required.

Traditional Network Management vs Cloud-based Network Management

Network management is an important aspect to ensure high performance and availability of servers and the entire network. However, the increasing cloud adoption over on-premises IT Infrastructure is changing applications and network management.

When we talk about traditional network implementation, network monitoring is used to check the performance of the network. Also, the on-premise infrastructure using protocols such as SNMP, ICMP to collect performance statistics from connected network devices.

When a cloud network comes into the picture, important extensions are added to the network. For example, performance of a company’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the performance of the cloud computing companies plus their ISP. Network management in a cloud environment is not only about the provision of a scalable, enterprise-grade network and resources but to manage and monitor them as well.

Important Benefits of Cloud-based Network Management Software

Organizations today are shifting to cloud development to drive agility, accelerate time-to-market and increase scalability. A cloud-based network management system plays an instrumental role in the way businesses address growing infrastructure needs, business expansion, and redundancy plans.

Here are some important benefits of using cloud-based network management software.

Better Patching Routines

The cloud’s unique ability to automate patching and software updates is what makes the network management superior. Cloud-based network management tools help companies identify servers and devices that are not functioning well. Also, such systems give the proof to upgrade network devices. This is done in the form of automated releases for cloud-based platforms. This creates peace of mind for businesses knowing they are on the latest codebase to get new features up and running faster than ever.

Anywhere Access

Another important benefit of using cloud is that it makes data, applications, and services accessible from anywhere at any time. With the cloud, organizations can access their network management console with the same convenience. Additionally, IT teams can watch and configure devices anywhere on their network. Though IT professionals can perform similar tasks on-premises, for example, setting up a VPN, and a remote desktop app to access the management console for configuration purposes. However, cloud-based management consoles are seamlessly accessible through a simple web application, making configuration more mobile.

Better Visualization of the Network

In the process of keeping up with business requirements, sometimes companies fail to document all the devices in their infrastructure. To document all the devices where they are in a spreadsheet is a cumbersome process. Network monitoring software comes as a failsafe way to document devices and provide a live network map of the entire network infrastructure. In that manner, companies have a comprehensive view of the network. This helps new employees to become easily familiar with the network. Moreover, companies can put in place the best network design practices with the help of a network map to support further growth.

Enhanced Security

According to Gartner, more than half of the companies faced security vulnerabilities during the pandemic. Securing mission-critical business assets from malicious attempts is the utmost concern for every size of company. Cloud-based network management tools use Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to learn about underlying networks and figure out network’s baseline. If the baseline is ill-equipped, these tools will alert the IT staff about the issue. It provides valuable insights about sources and determines the nature of traffic across the network. With the tool, it becomes easy to identify nature of the traffic on critical devices. Having visibility in detail about network activity helps the IT team identify malicious network activity and security loopholes. Also, this can help respond to those loopholes even before they occur.

Improved Business Outcome

With a quest to find cost-effective IT infrastructure solutions, many companies go for free over paid network management solutions. One of the major disadvantages of free systems is that they don’t provide 24/7 support. Without support, businesses may not get timely resolutions on critical issues. And such critical errors cause network downtime. According to Gartner, the cost of network downtime is $5,600 per minute. Now one can understand the importance of 24/7 expert support. Because this can overcome severe outages that have direct impacts on customer satisfaction and the company’s reputation in the marketplace. With cloud-based network monitoring tools, businesses get round the clock expert support. They can address areas of concern before it becomes threatening, act promptly, and eventually fix the issue before a failure occurs. After a considered investment in network management software, the cost of monitoring is quickly justified by increasing ROI of the business.

Is your Business Growing? Go for a Cloud-based Network Management System.

Growth is an important goal for every business. And maintaining its uptime with active business expansion is the biggest one. A cloud-based network management software is an indispensable asset to cut down risks, eliminate downtime and maintain high availability. Cloud technology for network management and monitoring ensures healthy network and smooth business operations. That also means you can plan for future security risks.

Network outages could cost you. Don’t compromise with your business uptime. Connect with our cloud experts to enjoy continued business growth and expansion. Explore Icreon's Digital Transformation Services.