Education IT systems seem to have a large target on their back these days.  According to an October, 2010 McAfee study, universities and colleges rank number 1 in the ‘Top 10 Riskiest Places to Give Your Social Security Number’.  Cyber crooks are attracted to the vast pools of personal data available on university and educational IT systems.  And unlike typical commercial organizations, universities and schools can’t simply lock the doors in the evening and feel assured that their network is somewhat secure.  Open buildings and computer lab environments complicate the physical security policies for these institutions.  As a result, “State schools and universities are among the most likely government agencies to suffer data breaches.”

Breaches seem to be a continuous part of the news headlines these days, but one article in particular caught my eye in the last few weeks.  In mid-January, a California city college notified more than 13,000 students and employees about a specific breach that was discovered in late November.  The breach was identified when the IT department found gaps in the data logs of a server that was located in a campus computer lab.  After investigating these gaps, they found a virus that had existed on the college’s system since 1999…more than a decade.  And during the investigation, they found transmissions that had been sent to Russia, China and several other countries; however the college hasn’t confirmed what type of data was sent in these transmissions.

As our schools add new devices to the network, making it more complex, it is harder to manage and control.  How can education institutions that are struggling to control costs mitigate these risks within their expanding networks while protecting their student and employee’s data?  Abnormal behavior often provides the best insight to network administrators needing prevent breaches and system failures. Cost-effective solutions exist that can help institutions watch their network for unusual behavior that may include:

• Unconventional network traffic patterns
• Unauthorized access attempts
• Resource utilization spikes
• Unauthorized configuration changes

To learn more about these IT Management best practices for Education, please listen to our latest webcast that provides insight into mitigating data breach risks or download our best-practice white paper.

In my current role I speak to a lot of network engineers trying to automatically map their network topology. Actually it’s more than that, they don’t just want to discover devices, the want a port level diagram of exactly how all their switches, routers, servers, workstations, phones, firewalls . . . you get the point. Some engineers I speak to practically ask:

“Can this tool provide a detailed topology and physical map illustrating the rack number and space in the rack for all the devices in my environment without configuring SNMP?”

Seriously? Really?? While I may be dramatizing a bit, the reality is that network engineers regularly walk into hostile environments where the responsibility for the documentation and organization of equipment on the network has been sorely neglected. In some cases these engineers are filling a role that never existed before so nobody took these responsibilities seriously, and in others . . . let’s just say their predecessor may have left in less than amicable circumstances. In these situations engineers need tools that will flexibly discover and map the environment by any means necessary and provide them with the information they need to make sense of this strange new world they’ve thrown themselves into.

I feel for these engineers. I’ve been one of those professional services road warriors walking into a new environment every week and seen everything from well organized, well labeled, cable managed, SAS 70 certified datacenters where the greatest risk is getting stuck in the mantrap or having your coffee confiscated when you accidentally carry it onto the raised floor, to the cable spaghetti general purpose wiring closets where copper network cables are picking up EMF cross-talk from 240V electrical wiring that was dangerously close to a leaky roof. That’s no dramatization, and the point I’m trying to make is no matter how well funded, organized, or configured an environment may be, without a map to illustrate the physical and logical relationships between systems every engineer I’ve met would be lost.

Getting those maps early on and keeping them updated is a critical part of every network engineer’s role and a tool that will automate the process of discovering and drawing those maps is invaluable. That said we can’t expect miracles, tool developers are not the brothers Grimm, there are no networking fairies that will console into all your switches while you sleep and enable SNMP/CDP. There’s always going to be some amount of legwork to enable the environment to tell you what you need to know and it will be an iterative and ongoing process to keep that environment properly configured, documented, and mapped. The tools that minimize that legwork and maximize the value of our efforts as engineers is something truly worthy of legend.

IT Automation

Each year sees an increase in the amount of IT tasks and operations that can be automated. 2011 will be no different, according to Ennio Carboni:

As the number of networked devices inside and outside the enterprise continue to explode – both in infrastructure (e.g. routers, switches and systems infrastructure supporting video, and wireless app delivery) and end point devices (especially mobile handhelds, tablets, and netbooks) – higher automation is necessary to maintain control of management costs. Equipment vendors, software publishers and end user IT organizations are embracing automation in many ways – building and deploying more intelligent network devices, using virtualization-led dynamic provisioning and configuration to meet variable demand profiles and attempting to build closed loop management systems that can react to infrastructure changes. We’ve seen this coming: technology replacing humans in the workplace – case-in-point, HP laying off 9000 workers from their datacenter services unit.

Configuration Management and IT Security

However, the rapid growth in the number and complexity of network devices does have its drawbacks. As networks grow, so do the vulnerabilities associated with their configuration and security. Analysts estimate that more than 60% of network outages are caused by manual configuration errors at an annual average rate of 30+ errors per device. This has tremendous impact on maintaining IT security and compliance with internal and external regulatory policies. As a consequence, analysts predict that configuration management and IT security tools will continue to see robust growth in 2011 (Check out slide 4.)

If your network is undergoing the growth now found across the board and you don’t already have a configuration management tool in place, 2011 is the year to change that. A good configuration management tool allows you to automate the process and reduce your chances of an outage, while also notifying you when and where an outage occurs so it can be rectified quickly with little downtime.

Although we are all familiar with budget cuts, this might ring close to home for the UK public sector, where on October 20 the government announced an intense review of public sector spending. However, given the less than ideal state of the international economy, working effectively within budget constraints is no less prevalent worldwide. Our Channel Manager, Steve Demianyk, provides some tips for the IT department under fire.

Tip #1 Make the most of the infrastructure you already own

Document port-to-port connectivity, ideally, with an inexpensive layer 2/3 discovery, mapping, and inventory tool. With a complete inventory in place, troubleshooting, auditing, and repurposing unused resources becomes easier.

Tip #2 Need more hardware? Consider moving to an internal cloud!

Ipswitch hasn’t purchased a single piece of hardware in the three years since we’ve moved to the internal cloud. Your first step in virtualization is to decide which serves to move to the cloud. Usually, supplementary servers like DNS, domain controllers, DHCP, and file and print servers are good places to start because they don’t take full advantage of the hardware on which they exist. Web servers, mail servers and small databases are also good candidates.

More complex servers can be virtualized, but this must be planned out carefully. Before virtualizing any server you should run a trending analysis and performance monitoring. You will want to measure processor use, memory use, storage, network traffic volume and disk I/O. An overloaded server should not be moved to the cloud in any case.

Tip #3 Look for ways to troubleshoot and resolve issues faster

Industries studies show that 80% of IT time and resources are spent on finding the problem, and only 20% is for fixing the issues. If you are running more than one network management solution you will have to manually examine multiple reports and interfaces to correlate information across various types of metrics. This can substantially lengthen mean time to resolution (MTTR), making the job much more difficult and time consuming. Look for an infrastructure management solution that will let you discover, map, monitor and manage the network devices, servers, applications, virtual resources, port-to-port connectivity, configuration settings and network traffic from a single console.

Tip #4 Ensure 24×7 health, availability and optimal performance of infrastructure and applications

Performance monitoring should be a routine task. This seemingly unimportant activity can minimize risks and increase the likelihood that network issues and bottlenecks are found early on. A network management solution with an all-inclusive console will make this job easier and more efficient.

Tip #5 Look for cost-effective solutions

They do exist. If you currently use one of the big four solutions you might want to reconsider your solution for the upcoming year. You can still have a solid IT management solution for a reasonable price, but you may have to sacrifice the bells and whistles. One might naturally look towards open source solutions, but configuration can be a nightmare and the risks are high: vulnerability, scalability, liability, lack of tech support.

As the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy puts it, “Don’t panic” (in the face of budget cuts). Just weigh your options and find ways to do more with less.

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Thanks to Chris Hampton of Realtime Publishers we have a few tips to make your life as a network admin easier.

Through automation and other efficient methods of network management you can make yourself the ultimate resource for network status and configuration knowledge, while at the same time alleviating your stress points.

One way to help yourself is to utilize tools that save time. Why waste time with manual network topology documentation when ARP Cache Discovery and Link Layer Discovery Protocols can do that for you? They query your devices’ Management Information Database files and collect extensive info to assist in building a network outline that is up-to-date in near real-time.

Another important ability is staying in control. Know your network: what devices are on your network and where they are located. You should know device interdependencies and how they are affected by changes to the network. In order to do this it is a good idea to track all changes. Collecting up-to-date status information with powerful scheduled discovery checks will allow you to do this. A network management solution that offers device configuration management from a central location would be a great asset to you in this situation.

With such a tool you can also enhance your ability to keep the network available by pinpointing issues quickly and reducing downtime. Pinpointing becomes easier when you have a network management solution that automatically generates network maps and map views and can export these maps to documentation tools like Microsoft Visio. Easily-retrievable maps provide you with insight into a network’s overall design.

Once you have these abilities at your fingertips, daily network administration tasks are a cakewalk. Plus, you’ve succeeded in making yourself the ultimate resource.

When your business is growing so is your network. Even when business isn’t booming (thanks economy) your business’ infrastructure can be evolving too. What you need is a tool that can manage these changes for you.

Little known fact: 75% of network outages and performance issues are the result of misconfiguration error. No one wants that.

We don’t want that for you either — so we’ve developed a list of best practices to assist you with network configuration and change management.

Best Practice #1: Create standard configurations for each device classification, such as router, LAN switch, WAN switch, or ATM switch.

Best Practice #: Maintain the current running configurations for all devices and a set number of previously running versions – at least 3 to 5 previous working versions – it will really help with troubleshooting tasks.

Best Practice #3: Keep track of when configuration changes were made for auditing purposes – you might even think about setting up real-time alerts and notifications in this area.

Best Practice #4: Automate the execution of the scheduled tasks relating to current network configuration backups, startup configuration file backups and password change management for an individual device or across groups of devices to reduce errors and save time.

Best Practice #5: Document your network and configuration changes periodically.

Sounds like a lot to take care of? WhatsConfigured can automate these processes for you. With full integration into WhatsUp Gold, it can simplify your life and eliminate human errors. Tedious manual configuration tasks and solving misconfiguration issues in the dark can now be a think of the past with WhatsConfigured. Nightly configuration backups, bulk configuration changes, complete audit trails, and real-time alerts triggered by changes to configuration are just a few of the featured we’ve designed with you in mind.

Ever wonder how other IT professionals use WhatsUp Gold?

Marston’s, Britain’s largest brewer of cask beer, has a cool use-case story. The brewers were interested in growing their business to become known for more than great beer and pubs. They wanted their evolving clientele to know them for also providing a fun public WiFi hotspot and the place to play the latest internet-connect gaming products.

In order to do this they needed to not only enhance both front of house and back-office infrastructure but also improve communications and reliability of connection between the individual pubs and head office so they could start offering these new services to clients.

To achieve this, Marston’s took on the ambitious and innovative step of moving into the telecoms industry in its own right, allowing it to package and deploy its own customized services to various parts of the business.

But creating its own broadband network and taking responsibility for the infrastructure of its 500+ managed pubs meant that Marston’s needed to invest in a scalable networking monitoring solution to provide visibility across the new telecoms network and to help identify problems with hardware and connectivity.

Luckily, their partner, Level 8 Solutions, stepped in and recommended Ipswitch’s WhatsUp Gold.

This wasn’t Marston’s first experience with WhatsUp Gold. They’d been using within their head office for several years. They then deployed a separate WhatsUp Gold installation to monitor routers and WiFi hotspots installed at its managed pubs, as well as to support home workers also served by Marston’s Telecom.

“Using Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold, we are able to monitor the remote infrastructure installed at our estate of managed pubs across the country, ensuring that equipment is functioning correctly and that the connectivity we are providing through Marston’s Telecom is also performing as expected,” McMinn explained.

Plus sides to using WhatsUp Gold over other products like HP Insight were WhatsUp Gold’s clear and easy to follow feedback on the state of the network and the devices connected to it; its single point of view over the health of the network being monitored; and the clear visual guidance when a device encounters a problem.

As in . . . Green is Good, Red is Bad.

If you’re interested in reading the full Case Study click here.

So what about you? Do you use WhatsUp Gold to monitor something even more interesting that beer? If you do, let us know about it in the comments!

WhatsUp Gold v14 Premium was recently added to the U.S. Department of Navy’s Application and Database Management System (DADMS) list. Previous versions of WhatsUp Gold have been on the list since v11. As a member of the DADMS list, WhatsUp Gold v14 Premium has been rigorously tested to ensure compliance with the Navy’s application reduction initiative.

Other members of the WhatsUp Gold Family are frequently used by government offices and Federal agencies. For instance, WhatsUp Gold Event Log Management Suite is not only used by the U.S. Navy, but also the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Department of Homeland Security, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and all branches of the U.S. military.

Having the newest and most up-to-date versions of WhatsUp Gold allows government organizations to be confident in the availability, health, and security of their critical infrastructures. It is our hope at Ipswitch to continue to provide powerful network management solutions that maintain the high standard of performance and adherence to regulations the U.S. Navy and other Federal branches have come to expect. WhatsUp Gold v14 Premium and WhatsUp Gold Event Log Management Suite continue this tradition.

As President of Ipswitch Inc.’s Network Management division I have had the opportunity to speak with many of our customers about their experience using WhatsUp Gold.

Now, because WhatsUp Gold can be deployed and utilized in a variety of ways, each new story I hear varies from the last. But I have noticed a few common themes over the years. One such theme sounds like this:

“The phones stopped ringing as soon as it was deployed on the network.”

In fact, a few weeks ago I had a new customer call up our sales team and rave about the silence he and his team have enjoyed since they implemented WhatsUp Gold on their network. No more phone calls about the network being slow, that this server is down, that the Internet isn’t connecting, etc.

Because of the powerful systems and performance monitoring WhatsUp Gold delivers, these guys are finally the first to know when something is wrong on their network. They can now fix an issue before it affects their users.

This latest customer interaction reminded me of our history with job-search-giant, CareerBuilder. As a longtime user of WhatsUp Gold solutions, our product has literally grown along with CareerBuilder’s company.

In its early stages in 2003, at a point when the job search site was just one-fifth the size of the market leader, they brought in WhatsGold to solve their basic monitoring needs. As they’ve grown and matured, becoming the nation’s largest online job site, WhatsUp Gold has stayed a step ahead to continue to provide them the tool-set and functionality they need to manage a network that now includes close to 1300 devices.

Despite the evolution of technology and the increasing complexity of networks and managing solutions, we know that with most of our customers it is still the little things that make such a big difference. Mark Fouraker, Technologist at CareerBuilder, touches on just that in a favorite quote of mine from this customer story:

“My favorite story about WhatsUp Gold is when I was in an important meeting and was getting silent alerts on my pager about an impending issue on our network. I was sneaking out at breaks to troubleshoot and address the matter, eventually resolving it. The bottom line is that no one outside of a few people in operations had any idea there was even an issue at all. It’s just a beautiful product.”

A story like this is really powerful, in my opinion, because it shows how technology can evolve and customer needs can change, forcing us to continually adapt and innovate our product to meet those changing needs. It also shows that business relationships can certainly last as long as it remains mutually beneficial, with a bit of give and take from both sides.

An ordinary day for a network administrator can tend to be anything but. Whether you’re dealing with help-desk tickets, installing new applications into the infrastructure or troubleshooting a network outage, there never seems to be a shortage of tasks on your daily to do list.

One of the more important aspects of your job, when it relates to maintaining optimum network performance, is managing network device configurations and changes within those devices. The fact is, device configurations are the key to a properly functioning network, and when changes go unnoticed, or devices fail, the impact felt across the network can be detrimental to business operations.

Obviously, with the level of importance of maintaining network device configurations being so high, there are some related tasks that are necessary to keep your infrastructure up and running at its peak at all times. Backing up configuration files in the event you need to restore or replace any failed devices rapidly, limiting the impact felt by the network, is vital. Also, when changes are made to device configurations, it’s important to compare running files to stored files in order to speed up operational response.

Those are just a few of the main tasks that are necessary to complete in order to gain complete control over your device configurations. The fact is, this is not a simple aspect of network management to maintain, especially if you are tasked with conducting these jobs manually.

We at WhatsUp Gold realize the stresses you have to face daily, and try to do what we can to make life for you that much easier. When it comes to  Network Change and Configuration Management (NCCM), WhatsUp Gold WhatsConfigured offers you peace of mind by automating the critical tasks necessary to maintaining your device configurations around the clock.

Don’t take my word for it though, listen to Rachel Kennedy, Senior Information Developer in the Ipswitch network management division, for a full description of WhatsConfigured’s command line: