John Yang, Vice President for Asia Pacific and Japan, Progress, makes the case for network observability as a strategic asset in an evolving digital landscape.
The best of both worlds – that’s what many would say when asked about why they opt for hybrid clouds. Mixing the agility and scalability of the public cloud with the control of on-premises infrastructure undeniably has its advantages. IBM’s Mastering Hybrid Cloud report indicates that a hybrid cloud approach yields 2.5x more value than a single public cloud alone. A separate IBM report, meanwhile, asserts that these benefits are driving businesses to adopt a hybrid approach – estimating that the average organisation today runs up to at least 10 clouds. However, this also makes seamless integration, data synchronisation and robust security across multiple environments an ongoing challenge.
Overcoming challenges
In reality, it should come as no surprise that hybrid clouds aren’t some silver bullet. As with anything, new approaches often result in new challenges. Visibility is one such challenge. Many organisations struggle to maintain a view of what is happening across their on-premises and cloud environments. That makes it harder for IT teams to identify security threats, deliver robust operations and maintain optimal performance levels.
Further complicating matters is the fact that many monitoring tools fail to provide a complete view. For instance, many organisations adopting a hybrid approach find themselves grappling with security gaps. The hybrid cloud and modern Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) app deployment models expand the attack surface. Organizations can also have limited visibility into application behaviour and network flows complicates efforts to identify performance issues. What’s more, maintaining compliance with regulations when deployments use cloud and on-premises infrastructures is a headache without unified network observability to present the full picture.
Visibility into everything
These challenges require solutions that empower effective management of hybrid cloud infrastructure. Invariably, this hinges on having detailed insights into the network – both in cloud and on premises – at the tip of your fingertips. That’s where network observability comes in; illuminating complexities to enable proactive management and informed decision-making all along the network.
Via this more detailed picture organisations can:
- Gain a centralised view of network infrastructure – Including cloud instances, virtual machines, containers and physical hardware – optimises management, streamlines workflows and enhances operational efficiency.
- Get real-time insights – Real-time visibility into network performance metrics, application health and security posture enables proactive issue identification and resolution. That inevitably minimises downtime and optimises end-user experience.
- Enhance cybersecurity posture – Monitoring via real-time network observability helps detect security threats faster.
- Deliver on compliance requirements – Network observability platforms provide detailed audit trails that support compliance with regulations and industry standards.
Real-time insights allow IT to swiftly and precisely respond to performance bottlenecks or potential security breaches, meaning that proactive network management is no longer just wishful thinking, but a distinct reality. Using it, organizations can reduce downtime as they can identify root causes and navigate the severe consequences of downtime such as financial losses or reputational hits.
Ensuring the organisation is on top of efforts to deliver a smooth and seamless user experience is another benefit, resulting in increased customer satisfaction.
In addition, with cyberthreats continuing to get more potent, an enhanced view over the network helps with the early detection of anomalies and potential threats, leading to a more robust security posture. This also allows organisations to streamline risk management and compliance. By encouraging proactivity and vigilance, network observability helps foster an organisational culture focused on security and optimised user experience.
Network observability is not just a technical tool – it is a strategic asset in today’s evolving digital landscape. By enhancing security and efficiency, it plays a vital role in efforts to enhance cyber resilience. And that’s something that organisations of all stripes cannot overlook.
