Sponsored By: VMware
Guest IDC Blogger: Mark Leary
The acceleration of the digital business model has raised the stakes in deploying, operating, and optimizing a highly resilient and responsive network infrastructure. Knowing the detailed status of digital infrastructure conditions and components at any moment in time has become a vital requirement for digital business success. Owing to the central role of the network in today’s hyper-connected digital business model, both full visibility and complete control across and within the network are vital to success. This is true not only for the networking team but also for the IT organization and business units.
Critical Roles and Results
Observability has become a crucial management function across all IT domains. Advancements in solution capabilities and alignment with best practices are driving rising value and increasing investment. Network observability is no exception as the following highlight:
- Digital acceleration and the resilient and responsive network. Detailed intelligence and insights focused on network infrastructure and interactions are a necessity when building a resilient and responsive digital infrastructure. Current and trending conditions of the network, along with detailed component health checks and digital experience measurements, provide the level of visibility and control necessary for the network, networked resources, and networking staff to deliver on their full promise. Looking further into the future of networking, the detailed intelligence, in-depth insights, and precise automated actions driven by advancing network observability solutions promote a more dynamic networked environment.
- Network management: Key focal points. As the old adage goes, measurement drives management. Given that full visibility is required for accurate assessments and precise actions, network intelligence must range from the highest level of network measurement (e.g., use experience) to the deepest (e.g., packet telemetry). Continual and comprehensive measurement and monitoring of network infrastructure conditions and components enables consistent service delivery, rapid problem resolution, and timely threat mitigation. This view must extend from private on-premises systems to public cloud and communications services. It is this breadth and depth of view that move organizations forward in management automation, operational excellence, and digital innovation.
Key Tactical and Strategic Benefits
Network observability delivers far more than lower MTTR values. With improved visibility and control, IT organizations realize a wide variety of tactical and strategic benefits.
- Tactical benefits. The detailed intelligence and actionable insights offered across on-premises systems and cloud/communications services enables faster problem identification and resolution – not just for NetOps but also SecOps, DevOps, AIOps, and SRE. Heightened visibility and control also allow organizations to readily discover and precisely track the use of networked resources – e.g., systems, services, and applications. This presents a consistently accurate view of the network as well as insights into resource efficiency and capacity-related risks.
- Strategic benefits. Time savings across tactical duties (e.g., problem resolution) enable the IT staff to be redirected to higher-value activities (e.g., predictive modeling). Improved network service levels boost the credibility of the IT organization as a digital business leader. And with a proactive management approach (and supporting intelligence and insights), the network infrastructure can respond rapidly and reliably to business and technical requirements.
Vital Solution Capabilities
Network observability moves management beyond simple monitoring, moving it to the next level of intelligence, insights, and integration. Major functions of such solutions include:
- Comprehensive intelligence. The digital infrastructure is complex, formed by many interdependent systems and services. Strict measurement at all levels – from the top-level user experience to the network depths of traffic conditions and participating components – is required for full visibility.
- In-depth analysis. Generating actionable insights from all collected network intelligence is core to the observability mission. The more complete the data set and the smarter the analytics engine (e.g., AI-driven), the more accurate, precise, and predictive the insights become.
- Directed actions. Comprehensive intelligence and in-depth analysis promote precise and proactive network management. From proven recommendations to guided remediation to fully autonomous networking, all boost service excellence, staff productivity, and network dynamics.
- IT observability contributions. Detailed network data and in-depth network analysis prove very valuable to the operations, forensics, design, and optimization efforts across IT. They enable IT teams to operate with a network-level single source of truth and work together more effectively and efficiently against problems and across projects.
The Final Word
Detailed visibility and complete control have become vital requirements across all areas of IT – from networking to computing, from core to cloud to edge, from security to development, from operations to engineering, and from problem resolution to business innovation. In addition, the enhanced visibility and control provided by observability solutions enables ready and lower-risk adaptation to new demands driven by accelerating digital business road maps and digital infrastructure rollouts.
About the author
Mark Leary is Research Director for Network Analytics and Automation responsible for worldwide technology market research and analysis. Mark’s core research coverage focuses on the advancement and adoption of network performance management solutions (both on-premises systems and cloud-based services) and the development of network automation capabilities by both technology suppliers and enterprise operators. Sample key areas of interest include end-to-end visibility, predictive analytics, AI/ML-driven insights, digital experience management, open-source technologies, cloud service monitoring, and “programmed” automation as they apply to a secure, dynamic, and predictable network environment. Based on his current work and background, Mark’s research also examines the evolution of enterprise and cloud network technologies; adoption of cloud services and software-defined systems; buildout of professional support services and partner ecosystems; fortification of network management best practices; and the reformation of IT staff roles and skills in this demanding hyper-connected digital era.
Message from the Sponsor
VMware Aria Operations for Networks (formerly vRealize Network Insight) provides end-to-end network visibility for multi-cloud. It performs network traffic flow monitoring and application-aware intent-based network operations and offers easier NSX monitoring and troubleshooting. With application discovery powered by machine learning, it supports accurate planning for security and data center modernization projects. It provides complete traffic flow analysis and security planning across 3rd party vendors and VMware infrastructure.
