What are network management services and how does the use of analytics here contribute to better IT management?

Network management services are the collective set of systems and people that facilitate network administration, maintenance and monitoring. Network management has traditionally been a reactive process. For example, when a component such as a router or switch fails, a monitoring system triggers an alarm, then a technician fixes it and performs a root cause analysis. This approach gives network admins a very compartmentalized view of their IT network. When a component fails repeatedly, admins usually do not notice that the failure is a recurring issue because the monitoring system does not flag the alarm as a “repeat alarm.”

Analytics gives network administrators a holistic view of their IT network by letting them visualize their network as a single entity. Analytics makes it easy to identify patterns in alarm generation, discern relationships between network devices, and spot problematic devices that fail frequently. This helps network admins locate areas with a high potential for failure. Analytics shifts network management from being a reactive approach to a highly proactive one.