Cybersecurity breaches are more common than ever before. They strike businesses and organizations of all types and sizes every day. While some intrusions are minor, others are more significant and cost companies millions of dollars – or more. Some intrusions are even catastrophic.
Investing in network security monitoring is an effective way to protect your business from these attacks. However, since you have so many options to choose from, knowing what to look for can be helpful.
Is Network Monitoring Really Necessary?
Before diving into the specifics of how to find the right network monitoring solution, you may wonder if it is really necessary. In today’s highly digital landscape, it is an essential expense for any business that has a network.
While requirements vary somewhat from one business to another, usually, a business will require a comprehensive solution that shows the whole network in context and that helps to make diagnosing a problem fast and simple.
An effective solution needs to have the capability to discover all devices connected to your network, generate a network map automatically that shows connections, and provide administrators with an easy and effective way to run device inventories and determine what needs monitoring.
Now that you understand why network monitoring is needed, it’s time to dive into the specifics of what to look for when trying to find a service provider.
The Cost
For most businesses, the cost of a new service provider is an essential element to consider. While all businesses need to make this investment, it’s important to find a company that can provide the solution you are looking for on the budget you have.
You should also try to find a company that provides you with service and cost options. This will ensure that the service can grow or scale down with your business as your needs change.
Services to Look for When Choosing a Provider
The services provided by a network security monitoring company are a crucial aspect that will help you determine what company to choose. Some of the things to look for include:
Alert Generation Capabilities
The solution you choose needs to generate alerts for several network issues while supporting customizable thresholds. With this type of capability, your IT team can respond to problems proactively before the end users are affected. The solution should also monitor the infrastructure of your network – cloud, virtual, and physical all while supporting network traffic analysis, configuration management, log management, and application performance monitoring. It’s also necessary for the solution to automate common admin tasks and implement self-healing actions to help reduce your IT team’s workload.
Ease of Use and Scalability
When it comes to network security monitoring, the solution you choose should be simple. If you choose a software solution, it should be something you can learn quickly. However, the solution also needs to be able to scale to help meet your business’s future needs.
With a service provider, you need to look at the size of the company and the scope of its services. While there’s nothing wrong with choosing a smaller service provider, as your business grows, it may be impossible for them to scale their services to meet your new needs.
Modern Infrastructure Tagging
Traditional network monitoring tools will focus on the health of data center devices. However, modern solutions need to allow you to troubleshoot the communication between all your network endpoints and autodetect cloud and internal devices, external APIs, VPCs and orchestrated containers.
First Steps in Finding a Network Security Monitoring Solution
When you are ready to find this service provider, a good first step is to research the options. You can speak to other business owners and find out about the service providers they use but doing your own research will pay off. This is going to help you find a solution that meets your needs and that will be able to grow with your business as it changes.
Let BlueSteel Cybersecurity Provide Your Network Security Monitoring Solutions
Protecting your business from intrusions and hacks is a top priority for everyone. If you don’t invest in the right service provider, you may find that your network and business is at risk.
At BlueSteel Cybersecurity, we can provide the quality, modern solutions that you need. The first step is to get in touch to schedule a consultation. During this consultation we can discuss your needs and help create a plan to ensure you have the monitoring solutions required.
