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Most organizations today are evolving toward a Hybrid IT enterprise architecture, posing new challenges for network administrators. In fact, a recent survey of IT professionals found that 43 percent of organizations estimate half or more of their IT infrastructure will be in the cloud in the next three to five years. However, only 27 percent said they were confident their organizations were equipped to manage a hybrid environment.
With this shift to Hybrid IT, IT organizations will increasingly be judged by their ability to manage cloud services. This brings with it the challenge of managing resources they do not directly control, which are beyond the reach of traditional network management tools. And, this responsibility will ultimately fall to the network manager.
Networks without borders
Enterprise network architecture has evolved from flat networks interconnected to hierarchical models to today’s borderless Hybrid IT world. IT professionals are now not only responsible for the performance of on-premises IT infrastructure, but are also required to manage the integration of cloud services, as well as ensure quality of service for any application in the cloud. In the past, IT professionals typically used manual methods to manage networking, such as Excel and homegrown applications that were tied together, with multiple tools to manage the inside of the network. In today’s borderless world, these methods no longer provide network managers with the visibility needed to deliver on end users’ high expectations.
Even before the rise of Hybrid IT, IT departments everywhere were dealing with a lack of funding and subsequent downsizing, leading to the need for one dashboard to more efficiently manage networks. Now, the need for this type of combined monitoring and management solution is even greater, as networks are more complex than ever following the advent of Hybrid IT, not to mention BYOx, IoT and SDN.
Hybrid IT has also affected capacity planning. While many tools and applications are now in the cloud, freeing up resources, they are also causing new problem areas for IT to manage and monitor. The adoption of a one dashboard solution allows IT to monitor and manage network efficiently, intelligently decide what should be moved to the cloud and manage resources accurately—making it the best way to manage today’s complex networks.
How network mapping can empower IT professionals
Given today’s network complexity, for IT professionals to effectively manage borderless networks they need more than just a dashboard—they need complete visualization of the entire network, both on-premises and in the cloud. After all, basic tools like traceroute and DNS lookups are becoming obsolete as businesses rely more and more on cloud, SaaS and Hybrid IT.
Breaking down the mythical wall between the physical data center and the cloud and having greater visibility—seeing the pathways of applications and the quality of the service—is crucial to the success of a Hybrid IT strategy. Visual path monitoring helps IT regain much of the authority lost in the move to Hybrid IT. It allows not just the simplified detection of issues in internal networks, but also extends troubleshooting through the internet and into service provider’s networks.
This works because modern network path monitoring tools can simulate application-specific traffic, which passes through firewalls exactly the same way as user traffic. When a problem is identified inside a cloud or SaaS provider’s network, a network administrator can call the helpdesk with the right information needed to resolve the issue. The data from these tools can also be crucial for capacity planning—historical data can be used to anticipate when the organization will need more on-premises resources to alleviate bottlenecks. And, it can enable IT to secure a truly ideal service level agreement with their cloud vendor that ensures a certain capacity at certain times.
How can IT professionals map networks they don’t own?
If it’s not yet clear, as the evolving network landscape becomes more complex to accommodate Hybrid IT and other cutting edge trends, control and comprehensive visibility into networks—both on-premises and cloud—becomes more critical to business success. Network managers and IT organizations should consider the following best practices to map and control the networks they don’t own:
• Monitor the cloud and on-premises infrastructure from a single platform that can visualize the entire network landscape: IT professionals should be able to see—through a single platform and at any moment in time—when application performance is slowing down or underperforming, whether in the cloud or on-premises, and compare relative performance to make informed decisions. This includes the impact network performance is playing. A single platform provides a holistic view of the organization’s activity, enabling IT to turn data points into valuable, actionable insights. If IT professionals have to go between multiple platforms to manage these, they—especially network administrators—lose continuity.
• Use a monitoring solution that can see trends and alert IT on cloud resource consumption: A monitoring system that gives a view across the entire Hybrid IT environment will allow IT professionals to make informed decisions about whether workloads belong on-premises or in the cloud. This data is also critical to capacity planning. Knowing how much is being used currently, and what has been used in the past, can help IT to adjust resources constantly, not just on a semi-regular basis, for greater efficiency.
• Monitor quality of service (QoS) and end user experience: Today, an IT department’s success is dependent on being able to know the quality of the end user experience. To ensure this quality of experience, IT professionals need to be able to path out how the end users are actually using that application, and see the quality firsthand. Key metrics should be quickly identified and monitored to generate better visibility. In addition, the impact of key changes should be well understood. A monitoring tool that offers actionable insight, such as details on utilization, saturation and errors, is critical for speed, collaboration and QoS.
• Learn to trust—and get the most out of—cloud services: Trust is a big issue when it comes to cloud services, and many organizations have a hard time conceding that they will no longer have full control of their data because it travels across network they don’t own. In order to trust these services, and make the most of their benefits, IT professionals should know each provider and its offerings inside and out. Many services can provide information and reporting that can be drawn into an IT department’s own applications that are used to monitor and manage the network and the cloud. By knowing and trusting their cloud service providers, IT professionals can realize the cost savings benefits and more efficiently manage their entire network infrastructure.
Hybrid IT is here to stay, which means the future for IT professionals—network administrators included—is largely dependent on the ability to map networks they don’t own. With the right network monitoring and management tools, network managers can ensure performance across complex Hybrid IT network paths, and also gain critical insights that help drive business success.
