What is proactive management?
Proactive management of computer networks is a process of controlling, coordinating, and monitoring the hardware and software involved in the exchange of information between a company's computers and applications. Its basic functions are to obtain information from the entire environment, process it, show problems and deviations from standards, and develop solutions in advance for these cases before they become actual problems, always aiming to maximize the efficiency of the work performed by the company's teams and their productivity. It is essentially the control of a structure of physical and logical resources that can be distributed across various environments within the company. It ensures the quality of connections and services, proactivity, reliability and security of information, and integration of business processes.Why should it be a priority in your business?
As we have already mentioned, every company needs the internet and the services it provides. Each member of the company needs to use the computer network, routers, servers, and various software resources to access it. With this usage, problems such as access issues, slowness, and interruptions become potentially more frequent, and proactive monitoring can prevent losses and inconvenience for the company. A degradation in communication with banks, for example, can impact payments and/or receivables and affect cash flow, causing losses. A delay in entering an order via the network, for instance, can turn into an unacceptable execution delay for a client, and so on. All these unforeseen events can be prevented or detected when the company uses a proactive management process for its entire network. However, for this management to be successful, not only are good professionals needed, but it is also crucial to have the right tools that verify the proper functioning of all equipment and services, acting and reacting automatically, and triggering alarms to IT professionals when necessary. When effective proactive network management is implemented in the business, employees responsible for monitoring are informed in real-time about risks or potential network failures. This makes it possible to control proper functioning and ensure that the company's productivity is not affected.How to implement proactive network management?
For management to be carried out with effective control over all available assets, checking hardware, services, and processes, it is essential to have a team with the necessary expertise, trained and up-to-date, as well as the use of high-level tools that centralize all aspects of the environment, specifically designed for this type of need. There are several options on the market, and it is very important to verify which ones meet the needs of your structure according to your business, and that can also eliminate parallel controls (which hinder the actions of the IT team). These tools generally provide dashboards, or panels, where it is possible to display the main metrics related to network performance at that moment, along with graphs showing historical performance indexes and trends in these indexes. This facilitates the work of technicians in identifying problems that may be occurring and optimizes the search for solutions to unforeseen events.Advantages and downsides
Learn below the main advantages of using network management, and the possible problems its absence can bring. Advantages:- Detect system failures in advance;
- Automation of preventive and security routines;
- Quickly identify a device that is causing failure;
- Identify patterns and trends;
- Schedule routine maintenance at more appropriate times;
- Implement automated group improvement actions;
- Avoid operating the network at capacity limits.
- Slow network;
- Frequent network outages;
- Security issues;
- Financial losses due to service and employee downtime;
- Direct impacts on productivity and quality;
- Wasted time and information.
What tasks are performed by proactive network management?
The main tasks to be performed by proactive network management are data collection, diagnosis, and action or control. Data collection: Consists of monitoring the managed resources and collecting data – automatically – from those services. Diagnosis: This is the analysis carried out from the data collected during monitoring. Evaluations and comparisons of the data with predefined parameters are performed. If necessary, various procedures are executed to detect causes of problems and avoid system downtime. Control: When a problem is diagnosed, a control and/or corrective action is indicated and should be taken by the IT team that manages the network. Well-qualified teams are able to program routines so that reactive actions are automatically performed by the proactive management tool, thus correcting a problem online before it is noticed by users, before causing any impact on the company.How to choose and implement proactive network management?
Without effective and well-structured monitoring, the company can face major headaches in accessing its data and maintaining high productivity, hence the importance of having this process implemented and functioning well. First and foremost, monitoring solutions need to be as automated and centralized as possible to detect failures and critical points efficiently and quickly. Choosing a system that meets your needs is not an easy task, and the help of experienced professionals can be valuable for this decision – especially if the internal team is already very busy with day-to-day demands. It is essential for the company to seek specialized insight and have at its disposal a network management tool that provides agility, flexibility, customization, and scalability, with intuitive data visualization and automated alarms. It may sometimes be necessary to invest in a robust solution to handle this aspect of IT management, but the success in managing the technology platform provides the company with several benefits, mainly future cost reduction and increased productivity. Zamak Tecnologia da Informação is a specialist in proactive management and has a specialized team to meet your company's needs or assist your internal IT team. Learn more on our website about our proactive network management services!Frequently asked questions
What is proactive network management?
It is the process of controlling, coordinating, and monitoring the hardware and software involved in the exchange of information between a company's computers and applications. It gathers information from the entire environment, flags problems and deviations from standards, and develops solutions before they become real failures. The goal is to maximize team efficiency and overall business productivity.
Why should proactive network management be a priority for a business?
Because issues such as slowness, outages, and access problems become more frequent as a company relies more on its network, and they can cause real losses: degraded communication with banks can affect payments and receivables and disrupt cash flow, while a delay in logging an order can turn into an unacceptable delay for a client. Proactive monitoring prevents or detects these problems before they impact the business.
What are the main tasks performed by proactive network management?
The three main tasks are data collection, diagnosis, and control. Data collection monitors managed resources and automatically gathers data from those services; diagnosis analyzes that data, comparing it against predefined parameters to detect the causes of problems; and control indicates and applies the corrective action once a problem is identified.