Network management tools help companies to implement network infrastructure effectively, look up user information rapidly, track network operation, debug problems, protect against and respond to cyber attacks, and optimize responsiveness. Network management tools can help detect inefficient or improper uses of network services like streaming multimedia or peer-to-peer file sharing that can burn up bandwidth, lower employee output or enable data leaks. A prudently planned network management environment can also assist companies to make informed network enhancement moves by showing tendencies in resource demand for different periods or types of activities.

Meraki Dashboard Experts

The Meraki Dashboard allows simplified cloud management for Cisco infrastructure hardware

Cisco offers a diverse and expanding catalog of infrastructure management platforms that support unified management for on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid network models. With Cisco's later generation of security, switching, and Wi-Fi networking products, you can choose among Meraki, Cisco DNA Center, or CLI management platforms for network management. For example, you can interface the latest Catalyst or Meraki switches and Catalyst or Meraki Wi-Fi access points to the Meraki dashboard to manage critical layers of your IT infrastructure from the cloud. Progent's Cisco Catalyst WiFi access point experts, Cisco Meraki WiFi access point consulting experts, Catalyst switches consulting experts, and Cisco Meraki switches experts can help your organization to design, deploy and optimize an up-to-date solution for network monitoring and management.

Traditional Network Management Tools from Cisco and Others
Network Management Solutions ExpertiseA wealth of network management utilities from Cisco and third-party vendors highlights the value and complexity of network management. Progent's Cisco-certified network management engineers are experienced at helping businesses develop management solutions utilizing on SNMP, SYSLOG services, and Cisco NetFlow to build effective mechanisms for network bandwidth usage and network latency, monitoring key router and switch operational metrics, and identifying traffic profiles, applications, and devices utilizing network services. Progent can help customers to deploy a rich selection of free and license-based monitoring and management solutions to maintain a Cisco-powered environment. Utilities used by Progent's engineers include Cacti, Nagios, Paessler Router Traffic Grapher, Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager, Cisco Network Assistant, Cisco Security Manager, OpenView, Concord E-Health, Advent and Firewall Analyzer, Solarwinds Orion, and NetMRI. Network management platforms can help IT administrators to understand existing system utilization and effectively prepare for future traffic expansion. Network management tools can also be deployed to detect inefficient or inappropriate uses of system resources, such as streaming audio and video, peer-to-peer file sharing, etc. that can waste valuable or scarce network bandwidth. A well crafted network management solution can also enable businesses to make intelligent decisions on WAN and LAN improvements after they recognize how much system bandwidth actually required at specific times. Having an efficient network management system in operation in advance is essential to avoid severe problems that can be due to Denial Of Service (DoS) attacks and dangerous viruses. Such assaults can leave the network unusable and in the absence of proper utilities it can be difficult, and sometimes virtually impossible, to identify the source of the trouble. Network Management Tools from Cisco
Cisco provides a variety of powerful tools that should be the foundation for any network management solution. Used in combination with the top third-party tools, Cisco's network management offerings can improve the competitive value of network infrastructures for organizations of all sizes by dealing with key areas such as resource utilization, throughput, resilience, security, troubleshooting, and capacity planning. Cisco's most familiar network management tools include: Cisco ASDM is a browser-based Java applet that permits you configure and operate the software on network appliances. Cisco ASDM is installed by the adaptive security appliance, and enables you to configure, track, and control the device. Monitor Manager is a management and monitoring solution designed to address the needs of small and midsize companies. Cisco Monitor Manager actively tracks important appliance processes on voice and data networks used by 5 to 250 users and with up to 250 Voice over IP phones. Monitor Manager provides:

  • Real-time scanning of important appliance parameters on SMB-class network appliances, Unified Communications Manager Express, Unity Express, security devices, WAPs, and Cisco Unified IP Phones
  • Ability to manage the Unified Communications 500 communications appliance for companies with as many as 50 workers
Monitor Manager scans the system on a 24x7 basis and periodically polls and collects inventory and operations-monitoring data from the monitored devices in the network. Monitor Manager is a Windows-based utility and is entirely nondisruptive to IT processes and does not deploy any agent software on managed devices. Cisco Monitor Manager offers a variety of valuable features including:
  • Network discovery and physical topology
  • Physical and process looks at Unified Communications deployment
  • System wide device identification collection and documentation
  • Highly secure and dependable communication
  • Cisco device operations monitoring
  • IP Telephony tracking
  • Connection status and data traffic tracking
  • Real-time alarms and notices
  • Reports
  • Configuration archive
Network Assistant is a desktop-hosted management application designed for for wired and wireless LANs (WLANs) for expanding businesses with up to 40 switches and routers. By using Cisco's Smartports technology, the application streamlines configuration, installation, and ongoing management and maintenance of Cisco-based networks. Network Assistant offers a centralized system view and allows network managers to deploy its functions across Cisco switches, routers, and wireless access points. Cisco Security Manager is a highly functional but easy-to-use solution for managing all facets of appliance configuration and policies for firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs), and Intrusion Prevention Systems. Security Manager effectively handles even small networks with fewer than ten appliances, but also scales to manage enterprise systems with thousands of devices. Expansion is achieved via smart policy-driven management procedures that can simplify administration. Key features of Cisco Security Manager are:
  • Allows control of Cisco routers configured with a Cisco IOS security image, ASA 5500 Series firewalls, Cisco PIX firewalls, IPS 4200 sensors, and Catalyst 6500 Series security modules
  • Reacts faster. more rapidly to attacks: specify and assign new security policies to many hundreds of devices in a few easy steps
  • Intuitive graphical user interface offers superior ease-of-use
  • Multiple views that provide flexible ways to control appliances and policies including the ability to administer the security network visually on a topology image
  • Extensive animated help for the first-time operator to reduce training time
  • Globally call out which policies are shared and inherited by new appliances to ensure corporate policies are implemented regularly, at the same time providing sufficient flexibility to modify policies at the local device level
  • Ability to create a common rule table for all Cisco platforms with intelligent evaluation of firewall policies to detect anomalies in the rule base
  • Easily configure site-to-site, hub-and-spoke, full-mesh IPsec, or extranet VPN links with a VPN wizard
  • Integration with Cisco ACS for granular role based access control to devices and management services
  • Operation with Cisco security MARS to correlate events with related security appliance rules to support quicker decision making and enhanced system up time
  • Capability to allocate particular tasks to every administrator during the deployment of a rule, with structured change management and logging; permits the security and systems operations team to act cooperatively as a single unit with efficient teamwork
How Progent's Consultants Can Help You with Network Management Solutions
Progent's Cisco-Certified network engineers can assist you to use Cisco's network management tools alongside a variety of effective third-party applications to develop a comprehensive network management solution to keep your infrastructure operating dependably, consolidate valuable resources, guard your data, recover quickly from equipment failure or malicious attacks, and allow you to expand or repurpose network resources intelligently and affordably as your business grows. Progent can also assist you to use network management utilities to monitor and classify network data to enable traffic shaping, which allows you to set up Cisco routers to impose a variety of throughput constraints on certain classes of activity based on the priorities you assign. By buffering and queuing excess packets that exceed your committed rates, and by assigning priority to the most important applications, traffic shaping can keep service provider overage penalties from spiraling out of control and/or eliminate lost productivity resulting from indiscriminate policing of your network bandwidth limits during peak use. Progent's CISM, CISSP, and ISSAP security professionals can show you how to create an end-to-end security plan that encompasses your network management processes, and Progent's remote and on-premises support experts and Cisco CCIE and CNA qualified engineers can utilize advanced network management technology to isolate and repair problems rapidly to keep your network in business. To find out additional information about Progent's engineering support for Cisco solutions, pick a subject:

In order to ask Progent about technical assistance for Cisco technology, phone 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.

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