Although networks underpin almost every facet of business operations, organizations often don’t have end-to-end visibility of their communications infrastructure. As data volumes and cybersecurity threats continue to rise, why is network visibility increasingly essential, and how can enterprises create a more transparent architecture to improve performance, cost-effectiveness, and security?
Enterprise networks have become increasingly complex over the course of the last two decades.
Today, networks are tasked with connecting offices and other corporate sites, home and remote workers, data centers, and public and private cloud resources.
At the same time, enterprise networks are carrying a heavier load. The volume of enterprise data increased by an estimated 42% between 2020 and 2022, and the continued rise in cloud services places a growing strain on corporate networks.
To keep these networks secure and performing well, IT teams need visibility of what’s happening within them, like traffic flow, speed, latency, capacity usage, and application performance.
But today’s enterprise networks are often made up of a bewildering array of components, including on-premise and managed network equipment, cloud gateways, and security and access protocols, as well as a wide range of user and IoT devices. This not only makes the network more challenging to manage but also affects visibility: Network complexity and blind spots are a problem for 80% of organizations.
Why Is Network Visibility Important?
The capacity of the network to support the goals of the wider business is becoming ever more critical in a competitive organization.
Without visibility, however, it’s difficult to proactively manage the network to achieve this alignment, and it may even be impossible to guarantee uptime and service levels.
Less obvious performance problems might only become apparent when it’s too late – in fact, 84% of network professionals say users experience issues before the network team know about them. It’s also harder to dynamically manage the network to meet the performance demands of apps and services that are time-sensitive or bandwidth-greedy.
Network visibility also helps to keep digital infrastructure cost-effective, as it allows networks to be managed for optimal performance without simply throwing more capacity at the problem, which incurs avoidable costs.
Finally – and arguably most importantly – it’s almost impossible to effectively secure a network without being able to see all of it. Network blind spots could mean there are unrecognized vulnerabilities, and it’s trickier to identify if stealthy attacks are taking place. It’s also difficult to make sure sensitive data is secure and meets compliance regulations without full network visibility.
This is particularly concerning given that the number and sophistication of security threats is increasing with AI as a major driver phishing attacks alone increased by an incredible 1,265% in 2023, largely due to cyber criminals harnessing GenAI to generate hyper-personalized scam communications.
So what can enterprises do to improve network visibility? Tools like packet brokers, bypass switches, and taps can provide valuable information about what’s happening across the corporate network estate. At a more fundamental level, though, there are network architectures that can significantly improve visibility and support the business better too.
SD-WAN: Central Control and End-To-End Visibility
Software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) uses an overlay to create virtualized network connections that can be centrally controlled, managed, and configured using a single interface. This centralized approach simplifies infrastructure and – compared to traditional technologies – dramatically improves visibility across the different segments that make up a typical enterprise network.
SD-WAN provides IT teams with granular details such as how traffic is flowing, which applications are utilizing capacity, how equipment and connectivity are performing, and latency and jitter. Insight can be provided from a bird’s-eye view of the network right down to the user level.
Remote working and multi-cloud strategies create more complexity for enterprise networks, putting up additional barriers to network visibility. SD-WAN, however, offers a unified view of the network even when there are multiple cloud connections. When the SD-WAN is extended to home and remote workers, network visibility is expanded to these connections too.
SASE: Combining SD-WAN With Security Capabilities
Poor network visibility and blind spots make it harder to detect security attacks, leaving enterprises more susceptible to threats. The rise of unsecured shadow IT and more endpoints connecting to the network mean there are more ways inside the perimeter – and bad actors are finding more sophisticated methods to exploit these potential vulnerabilities.
Network visibility is a critical foundation for security, as it allows organizations to see how and where network traffic and data are moving. This allows IT teams to identify unusual user and traffic behavior, such as:
- abnormal quantities of data being moved outside the network
- unknown devices connecting to the network
- unusual spikes in traffic flow
- data moving outside normal hours
Identifying these issues early can minimize the impact of breaches.
Secure access service edge (SASE) achieves this by combining the network virtualization and visibility of SD-WAN with security-as-a-service capabilities, including zero trust network access (ZTNA), secure web gateway (SWG), next-generation firewalls (NGFW), and cloud access security broker (CASB).
It provides remote users with easy access to corporate resources, without compromising on network security, and it enables IT teams to see and control performance and security across the entire network estate using a single platform. Since SASE services have full visibility and control of all network traffic, there are no blind spots where security tools and policies aren’t being applied.
A Single Pane of Glass for All Network Services
Since enterprise networks are made up of so many different components, services, and access technologies, getting a bird’s-eye view of the network can be a challenge.
Partnering with a network supplier that offers a single pane of glass can help here, as this provides complete oversight of fixed and wireless network and voice services, whether they’re physical, virtual, or software-defined. The ability to dial in the granularity on inventory, billing, network health, usage, availability, and performance provides IT teams with the level of detail they need to keep the network performing at its best.
Visibility Helps Align the Network With Business Objectives
Boosting visibility is essential, but it’s still only the first step towards a better-performing network.
If time-poor IT teams don’t have the capacity to analyze the vast quantities of data that fully transparent networks generate, the value of these insights can be lost. This is where AI is beginning to help, by pulling out the trends and patterns that humans can miss, and by suggesting potential remediation tactics when problems occur.
These insights provide the basis for better network decision-making, and pave the way for infrastructure that has the performance, flexibility, and security to truly support the goals of the wider business.