What Are the Five Functional Areas of Network Management?

The best network security management solutions also include keeping track of errors that occur across your entire network. If you can pinpoint exactly where the error occurs, you can discover the root cause more quickly and address the problem promptly. This is where fault management comes in.

This type of network management logs, detects, and responds to errors throughout the network. Your IT administrators immediately handle issues like link failure, host failure, or router hardware problems.

With fault management, you can repair, detect, and document faults that could disrupt network operations. While some errors could be very small, only impacting a few employees or systems, others can be catastrophic, shutting down your entire operations. A fault management solution works to protect you from both.

There are many options out there for fault management, as it is such a crucial and helpful aspect of network management. Be sure to choose one that is compatible with your current hardware and software, and integrates with important applications and systems.

Many issues can be prevented with a configuration management model. This type of network management goes beyond just setting up routers, firewalls, switches, servers, or installing system software. It also includes the tracking, maintenance, analysis, and repairing of these devices and systems. This way you ensure there are no opportunities for threats to detect vulnerabilities in your data and security.

Configuration management tools help you get ahead of possible incompatibilities between devices and/or systems. This can help prevent interruptions of services, systems, software, and applications.

In addition, because of the frequency of software updates, manual configuration monitoring can be very cumbersome and often ineffective. This is true for both small businesses and large corporations, which makes configuration management a network monitoring solution that keeps business at all scales running smoothly, safely, and seamlessly.

The distribution of hardware, software, and systems access privileges falls under the purview of accounting management. When you have clear documentation and regular tracking of who has access to what, it’s easier to identify bottlenecks and workarounds. More importantly, it’s also easier to resolve them.

In addition, accounting management software gives you a window into ways processes could be improved. It’s an endlessly useful tool for configuration management and price management.

A lot of wasteful spending can be found through an accounting management solution. You may be spending budgets on applications with seats no one is using or discovering that the wrong people have access. Plus, account management also helps prevent security threats and data breaches by tracking users, time, and location. This can provide information to your security admins that could help them stop a cybersecurity threat from interrupting your operations.

Cybersecurity threats are on the rise — and no company is as safe as they think they are. With more and more companies shifting their operations into the digital realm, the opportunity for cybertheft increases. Breaches can happen in more than 93% of company networks, according to a report from Betanews.com.

Network management systems cannot be fully robust without a security management solution included. That’s why the ISO sees it as a critical part of their structured framework. You need a robust security system to protect your network from viruses, data breaches, shutdowns, password attacks, SQL injection, and other common network security threats.

Performance, fault, configuration, accounting, and security — all five of these functional areas, upon further inspection, play distinct, yet comparable, roles in network management. With the multitudes of tech out there, network management solutions provide businesses with a way to develop and implement a powerful IT management system.