Network management systems help companies to deploy infrastructure effectively, access user information quickly, track system health, debug problems, defend against and respond to cyber attacks, and optimize responsiveness. Network management systems can spot inefficient or inappropriate uses of network services like streaming media or peer-to-peer file sharing that can burn up bandwidth, lower employee productivity or enable data leaks. A well planned network management solution can also help companies to make informed network enhancement decisions by exposing trends in network demand for various periods or types of jos.

Cisco Meraki Dashboard Experts

The Meraki Dashboard offers simplified cloud management for Cisco infrastructure hardware

Cisco has developed a rich and growing portfolio of network management platforms that allow centralized management for on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid network architectures. With Cisco's newer generation of security, switching, and wireless infrastructure devices, you can run Meraki, DNA Center, or CLI management platforms for network management. For instance, you can connect the latest Catalyst or Meraki switches and Catalyst or Meraki WiFi 6/6E access points to the Meraki dashboard to monitor and manage critical components of your network infrastructure from the cloud. Progent's Catalyst Wi-Fi access point consultants, Cisco Meraki Wi-Fi AP experts, Catalyst switches consultants, and Meraki switches consulting experts can assist your organization to plan, implement and tune an up-to-date environment for network infrastructure management.

Traditional Network Management Tools from Cisco and Others
Network Management Solutions Consulting and Support ServicesAn abundance of network management utilities from Cisco and other suppliers highlights the importance and difficulty of network management. Progent's seasoned network management consultants are experienced at helping businesses develop management solutions based on SNMP, Syslog, and NetFlow protocols to create effective mechanisms for network bandwidth usage and latency, viewing key router and switch performance metrics, and identifying traffic patterns, applications, and devices that use network services. Progent can assist customers to utilize a rich range of open source and license-based management tools to maintain a Cisco network. Tools used by Progent's engineers include Cacti, Nagios, Paessler Router Traffic Grapher, Cisco Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager, Cisco Monitor Manager, Cisco Network Assistant, CiscoWorks, Cisco Security Manager, OpenView, AlterPoint DeviceAuthority, Adventnet Netflow, Solarwinds Orion, and NetMRI. Network management tools can help organizations to be aware of current system utilization and effectively plan for future traffic expansion. Management tools can also be used to highlight poor or inappropriate uses of network resources, for example streaming audio and video, peer-to-peer file exchange, etc. that can eat up expensive or scarce network resources. A well planned network management plan can also enable businesses to make informed choices on network upgrades once they appreciate the amount of network resources really required at any one time. Putting an efficient network management system in operation ahead of time is critical to avoid severe problems that can be due to Denial Of Service (DoS) attacks and dangerous viruses. Such events can leave the network unstable and without proper utilities it can be time consuming, and sometimes practically impossible, to discover the source of the problem. Network Management Products from Cisco
Cisco offers a variety of powerful utilities that should be the foundation for any management strategy. Used in conjunction with appropriate third-party products, Cisco's network management offerings can improve the competitive value of network infrastructures for companies of all sizes by helping with key areas such as resource utilization, throughput, availability, security, troubleshooting, and capacity planning. Cisco's most popular network management products include: Cisco ASDM is a browser-based utility that permits you configure and operate the software on security devices. ASDM is loaded by the Cisco device, and allows you to set up, monitor, and manage the device. Monitor Manager is a management and monitoring solution developed for the needs of small and midsize companies. Monitor Manager continuously monitors key appliance parameters on voice and data networks used by five to 250 workers and with as many as 250 IP phones. The application offers:

  • Real-time tracking of important device processes on Cisco SMB-class network appliances, Unified Communications Manager Express, Unity Express, security appliances, access points, and Cisco Unified IP Phones
  • Support for the Unified Communications 500 Series communications appliance for businesses with up to 50 workers
Cisco Monitor Manager scans the system on a round-the-clock basis and frequently touches and gathers inventory and operations-monitoring data from the monitored appliances in the network. Monitor Manager is a Windows-based utility and is entirely nondisruptive to IT operations and does not deploy any agent software on target devices. The application provides a rich set of valuable features and benefits including:
  • Voice and data network discovery and physical topology
  • Device and process looks at Unified Communications deployment
  • Networkwide inventory logging and documentation
  • Advanced security and dependable operation
  • Device performance tracking
  • Cisco Unified IP Telephony monitoring
  • Interface status and traffic tracking
  • Immediate alarms and notifications
  • Documentation
  • Setup archive
Network Assistant is a desktop-based management application designed for for wired and wireless LANs (WLANs) for growing organizations that have up to 40 switches and routers. By utilizing Smartports technology, the application simplifies setup, installation, and continuing management and support of Cisco-powered environments. The application offers a unified system view and allows network administrators to employ its functions among Cisco switches, routers, and access points. Cisco Security Manager is a highly functional but easy-to-use solution for managing all aspects of device set up and security policies for Cisco firewalls, VPNs, and Intrusion Prevention Systems. The solution effectively handles even small networks consisting of fewer than ten appliances, but also expands to manage large-scale systems composed of thousands of Cisco routers, security appliances, and switch services modules. Scalability is enabled via intelligent policy-based management techniques that can streamline administrative overhead. Highlights of Cisco Security Manager are:
  • Allows provisioning for Cisco router platforms configured with an IOS security software image, Cisco ASA 5500 Series firewalls, PIX security appliances, Cisco IPS 4200 family sensors, and Cisco Catalyst 6500 security modules
  • Reacts more quickly to attacks: specify and apply updated policies to many hundreds of devices in a few simple steps
  • Intuitive GUI offers superior ease-of-use
  • Multiple looks that offer flexible ways to manage devices and security policies such as the capability to administer the security environment visually on a system topology map
  • Comprehensive animated help for the novice operator to accelerate learning period
  • Centrally specify which policies are common and automatically inherited by additional appliances to ensure company-wide policies are configured consistently, while providing sufficient flexibility to modify policies at the local device level
  • Capability to create a single firewall rule database for all Cisco firewalls with smart analysis of firewall policies to determine anomalies in the rule table
  • Quickly configure site-to-site, hub-spoke, full mesh, or extranet VPN links by means of a VPN wizard
  • Compatibility with Cisco ACS for low-level role based access control to devices and management functions
  • Integration with Cisco security MARS to associate events with related security appliance rules to help with quicker management decisions and increased system availability
  • Ability to allocate specific tasks to each manager during the implementation of a rule, with structured change control and logging; permits the security and systems operations staff to work cooperatively as a cohesive group with effective teamwork
How Progent's Cisco Certified Experts Can Help Your Business with Network Management
Progent's Cisco-Premier network management engineers can help you to utilize Cisco's management tools alongside an array of effective open source and proprietary applications to create a complete network management toolkit to keep your infrastructure functioning smoothly, consolidate expensive resources, protect your information, recover rapidly from hardware failure or deliberates assaults, and enable you to expand or repurpose system hardware intelligently and affordably as your business evolves. Progent can also show you how to use network management tools to analyze and classify system data to implement traffic shaping, which permits you to set up Cisco routers to impose a variety of bandwidth restrictions on certain types of activity based on the priorities you assign. By buffering and queuing data packets that exceed your committed rates, and by giving preference to business-critical applications, traffic shaping can prevent Internet Service Provider overage penalties from spiraling out of control and/or eliminate gaps in worker productivity caused by indiscriminate policing of your network traffic volume limits during peak use. Progent's CISM and CISSP security consultants can show you how to develop a comprehensive security plan that incorporates your network management solution, and Progent's remote and on-site network experts and Cisco CCIE and CNA qualified consultants can utilize advanced network management technology to isolate and fix problems quickly to keep your network running smoothly. To learn additional information concerning Progent's engineering expertise for Cisco technology, select a topic:

In order to ask Progent about consulting expertise for Cisco networking, phone 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.

© 2002-2026 Progent Corporation. All rights reserved.