Network Visibility: Why is it important?

Unfortunately, it takes time and money to understand your network. Even defining what’s “normal” for your network is a challenge, let alone being able to distinguish between regular and irregular behavior. Good news for the attacker, not so much for the victim. So how can an organization protect something so vast and ever-changing? There are several methods, but network visibility is a great place to start.

What is Network Visibility?

Network visibility covers a lot of ground, but its definition is actually rather simple. The term refers to being aware of everything within and moving through your network with the help of network visibility tools. In this way, network visibility tools are used to keep a close and constant eye on network traffic, monitor applications, network performance, manage network resources and big data analytics, which in turn, requires effective and scalable data collection, aggregation, distribution, and delivery.

Network visibility, however, is not a passive function as it allows you to exert greater control over all these aspects. The more in-depth, proactive, and extensive your network visibility, the more control you have over your network data, and the better you can make decisions regarding the flow and protection of that data.

Why is it important?

Network visibility is important for a variety of reasons, including:

• Security: By having visibility into the network traffic, security teams can detect and respond to potential threats and vulnerabilities more quickly and effectively. Network visibility allows security teams to identify and investigate suspicious activity, such as malicious traffic, unauthorized access attempts, and other security incidents, and take the appropriate action to prevent or mitigate them.
• Network performance: By understanding the types and amounts of traffic that are flowing through the network, network administrators can identify and resolve issues that may be causing slowdowns or other performance problems. A visibility strategy allows for the identification of bottlenecks, bandwidth consumption, and other network performance issues, which can help to improve the overall performance of the network.
• Compliance: Many organizations are required to comply with various regulations and standards, such as HIPAA or PCI-DSS. Network visibility can help ensure that the organization is meeting these requirements by providing visibility into the types of data that are being transmitted and the security controls that are in place.
• Troubleshooting: Network visibility solutions can help identify the root cause of network problems and resolve them quickly, reducing downtime and improving overall network reliability.  By having visibility into the network and its traffic, network administrators can quickly identify and resolve issues such as network outages, connectivity problems, and other issues that may be causing disruptions to the network.
• Business continuity: Visibility tools can also provide insight into the overall health and performance of the network, which is essential for ensuring that business-critical applications and services are available and running smoothly. This can help to ensure the continuity of business operations and minimize the potential impact of network outages or other disruptions.

Top network visibility tools

Network visibility tools can be used to help monitor network performance, traffic, big data analytics, and managed resources. Below are some commonly used tools:

• Network packet brokers (NPB). An NPB is a network monitoring tool that aggregates data from multiple points and distributes it through the network to network operations, application operations, and security administrators. They help reduce the workload of network security tools like intrusion detection systems (IDS), which can be overwhelmed by large quantities of data. They do this by sorting and forwarding data to security and monitoring tools using context-aware data processing. They optimize the input other security tools receive so they can make better decisions. A good NPB is high-performance and can scale to growing enterprise networks.
• SD-WAN. SD-WANs shift visibility from the traditional, appliance-centric approach to a software-defined approach. Network traffic is routed through a managed cloud service instead of an on-premises appliance, which improves performance and security by reducing network complexity and avoiding the inherent limitations of physical appliances like traditional firewalls. It provides a secure connection to cloud applications while maintaining visibility.
• Network TAPs. These are hardware devices inserted in the network at specific points to provide access to network traffic for testing and troubleshooting. It makes a copy of traffic and sends that copy to be used by another tool in the network without impeding the flow of traffic. Because they are hardware appliances, they have physical limitations, such as a limited number of ports. These are sometimes referred to as bypass switches.

Steps to gain Network Visibility

To achieve comprehensive network visibility, follow these essential steps:

• Assess current infrastructure: Start by evaluating your existing network infrastructure to identify any gaps or blind spots in visibility.
• Deploy comprehensive monitoring tools: Invest in advanced network monitoring tools that provide real-time insights across all network components, including cloud services and remote devices.
• Implement traffic segmentation: Segment network traffic to isolate and monitor different types of data, enhancing both visibility and security.
• Leverage advanced analytics: Use analytics to process and interpret network data, enabling proactive issue detection and optimization.
• Integrate with security systems: Ensure your visibility tools are integrated with other security and management systems for a cohesive approach.
• Regular updates and maintenance: Continuously update and maintain your monitoring systems to keep up with evolving network environments and emerging threats.

Conclusion

Network visibility is a crucial tool for organizations today. As bad actors find better ways to sneak in and stay around, stealing data, network visibility gives you the defense to improve surveillance and keep your organization safe.

Even as networks expand in complexity, network visibility doesn’t have to be challenging. With the right tools and cyber strategy, you can not only stop data breaches but also fix vulnerabilities, decrease downtime, and get meaningful insights into your network.