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Visibility is one of the most critical aspects of managing and monitoring networks. If there\u2019s a portion of your network that you can\u2019t observe, there\u2019s no way your network team can paint an accurate picture of what\u2019s happening in your systems. Blind spots, if left unchecked and unmanaged, can lead to devastating problems for your business<\/a>, including lagging performance, shadow IT devices, and security breaches \u2014 all happening under your IT team\u2019s nose.<\/p>\n In an era where networks are becoming more complex, with Internet of Things devices and new versions of smartphones coming out all the time, blind spots can be a major hindrance to network performance. How can you identify these blind spots and remove them from your infrastructure? A recent eBook by Auvik Networks, Are Network Blind Spots Endangering Your Business?<\/em><\/a>,<\/a> covers six common network blind spots and how you can avoid creating them \u2014 or remove them if you already have them.<\/p>\n Network blind spots can cause a number of detrimental effects on your business, from minor performance problems to security hazards. Auvik lists several issues that can arise from network blind spots, including:<\/p>\n So what are the types of network blind spots you can encounter, and how can your company deal with them? Auvik names these six blind spot varieties<\/a> to look out for:<\/p>\n Network mapping is a critical task \u2014 and one that is extremely difficult to do manually on-site, especially if you have a complex infrastructure divided into multiple different sections. Even if you could send your engineers to map out every single device and connection on your network, you\u2019d be wasting precious time that could be spent installing new hardware or fixing bugs and performance issues. Plus, the map your engineers could draw would be completely static; it would only represent your network at one moment in time.<\/p>\n The truth is, networks are constantly changing, whether it be through additional hardware, incapacitated or replaced devices, or performance issues that affect how devices behave. Manual maps won\u2019t cover that unless you send out your team again. You need a dynamic tool that can map out every detail on your network in real-time, updating automatically when new equipment is added or a device is reconfigured. Auvik uses network protocols and data pulling to provide an always-fresh map of your network, showing you exactly what it looks like in that instance.<\/p>\n Shadow IT is one of the primary concerns of corporate IT teams, especially with the rise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs, and for good reason. Every unchecked or unverified device could create a number of problems for you, especially if the owner of that device isn\u2019t diligent with keeping it secure. The rule of thumb is simple: if a device is on your network, you need to be able to see it.<\/p>\n In addition to its intelligent and dynamic network mapping system that discovers every device connected to your system, Auvik also supports numerous network device types and protocols including SNMP, CLI, REST APIs, and cloud APIs. Auvik is compatible with more than 15,000 network device types from over 700 vendors, giving IT and network teams the confidence that any unregistered device that\u2019s snuck onto their network can still be monitored.<\/p>\n Device configurations need to be backed up, but because manual backups take an extremely long time (especially at larger enterprises), it\u2019s likely that you only save backups every once and a while. That means your company may not have the proper idea of how all your devices are configured, as you only have month-old or quarter-old backups to rely on for information. Thus, when a device on your network crashes, you\u2019re potentially relying on heavily outdated knowledge to get it restarted and reconfigured.<\/p>\n Automatic device backup is a critical feature of network monitoring tools, and Auvik is no exception. Every configuration change is backed up so your network team can easily return to a previous configuration on a whim. This avoids the headache of trying to figure out where your network reconfiguration went wrong.<\/p>\n Depending on one source of data for all of your network-related information is always a problem, and that holds true for the command-line interface (CLI) as well. The CLI is a tried-and-true method of gathering network data, but it is not a perfect system. Coding and syntax knowledge is required to collect accurate information via the CLI; otherwise, your network engineers won\u2019t be able to properly interpret what the CLI reports on.<\/p>\n Still, the CLI provides useful data that shouldn\u2019t be missed when interpreting network performance. The CLI is just one of many data sources that Auvik collects, and unlike manually checking the CLI, gathering info from the CLI through Auvik doesn\u2019t require any technical know-how on the user\u2019s end. By removing the steep learning curve that comes from CLI analysis and backing it up with data from other sources, network professionals and novices alike can gather the proper information to diagnose problems.<\/p>\n All performance problems within a network boil down to figuring out why network traffic isn\u2019t getting to where it needs to go as efficiently as possible. Determining where a performance issue lies, and the severity of it, relies on knowing how your traffic behaves at every point of your network. When you don\u2019t have the proper context for what your traffic is doing, through traffic analysis, you won\u2019t be able to correctly address issues that arise.<\/p>\n Auvik\u2019s network traffic analysis capabilities take advantage of machine learning to accurately track and break down network traffic that\u2019s contextualized with other data. This grants granular insights to network teams that can help narrow down the cause of poor traffic flow. In Auvik\u2019s case, the tool supports network flow analysis for NetFlow v5 or v9, IPFIX, sFlow, or J-Flow.<\/p>\n Issues on the device side require you to look at device logs to correctly diagnose the issue. Device logs also provide information on specific performance or security events, delivering a local snapshot of problems that affect your devices. However, if you\u2019re not checking those logs regularly, the vital information stored in them will be lost.<\/p>\n Network monitoring tools like Auvik automatically check for device logs and interpret information from them to get a holistic view of every network performance event. This allows your network team to discover the root cause of issues by correlating information in logs together.<\/p>\n Looking for a solution to help you improve your network performance? Our\u00a0Network Monitoring Buyer\u2019s Guide<\/a>\u00a0contains profiles on the top network performance monitor vendors, as well as questions you should ask providers and yourself before buying.<\/em><\/p>\n Check us out on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0for the latest in Network Monitoring news and developments!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nWhy Are Network Blind Spots Harmful?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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1. Incomplete and Inaccurate Network Documentation<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Unknown and Unauthorized Devices<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Not Knowing How Devices are Currently Configured<\/strong><\/h3>\n
4. Relying on the CLI as Your Primary Data Source<\/strong><\/h3>\n
5. No Visibility into Network Traffic<\/strong><\/h3>\n
6. No Access to Device Logs<\/strong><\/h3>\n
For more information, check out <\/strong>Auvik\u2019s <\/strong>Are Network Blind Spots Endangering Your Business?<\/em><\/strong> eBook.<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/h4>\n
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