The Rise of Network Observability: A Strategic Technology Enabler

Introduction

The current era of distributed work requires delivery of truly borderless digital applications and services powered by the cloud, delivered via a secure network centered on high performance and best in class user experience.

It is essential that your organization has visibility and real-time insights into the data flow across the extended enterprise network as well as the ability to apply the necessary People, Process & Technology safeguards for data in transit and rest. This is mission critical to assure data protection and privacy while complying with regulatory mandates and minimizing enterprise risk. 

“Network observability” is a strategic technology enabler to help meet these business needs, minimize enterprise risk, and foster regulatory compliance.

‍What is network observability? 

Network observability enables effective, efficient, and dynamic visibility and visualization, with actionable insights about the network state. It forges a nexus between network operations and cybersecurity to strengthen resilience, reliability, and digital trust for the business mission, user experience, and the enterprise ecosystem. 

Data is at the heart of network visibility. Powerful back-end mechanisms such as data lakes and AI facilitate real-time analysis of large-scale varied data sets. Workflows and orchestration render proactive alerts, ease troubleshooting efforts for operational teams, and power continuous improvement via active trend analysis and retrospective data analysis. 

Network observability transcends passive monitoring and is a paradigm shift in network and security operations and performance management.

Foundational elements of network observability

The following are foundational elements to enact network observability:

• Telemetry: Focus on data collection from diverse data sources via interoperability to enable real time understanding of network operating state and health. 
• Data lakes: Process and analyze context rich telemetry data to accelerate delivery of actionable insights to empower network and security teams’ collaboration and enhance the user experience
• Visibility & visualization: Deliver real time visibility, trend analysis and correlation of historical data to drive network optimization and continuous improvement
• Automation: Initiate AI powered workflows to foster service assurance and facilitate proactive incident management

The value and importance of network observability

Managing network performance and assuring a superior end user experience is paramount for service assurance as end users access private, public, and hybrid cloud applications in a distributed, borderless manner. While the cloud is the hub for application delivery, the modern network is the delivery channel. It is vital and mission critical for security and network operations teams to have real time illustration of the enterprise network’s “under the hood” operating state to optimize performance and drive corrective actions.

The relevance of this emerging macro trend of network observability is bolstered due to the transmutation of the modern network from simple and relatively static to dynamic, complex, and constantly evolving. No longer are major enterprise applications hosted in a single corporate data center; rather they could be anywhere in the world in this cloud centric digital era. The cloud also enables rapid commissioning, de-commissioning, and migration of workloads and applications and underlying infrastructure and software.

The state of contemporary enterprise networks is in a constant state of flux, alongside change in infrastructure/software configurations and traffic characterization. This dynamic variability complicates both problem identification detection and anomaly detection. Anomalies serve as an early warning system for denial of service or cyberattacks, which could cause service issues or erode business trust.

The current macro network operating environment renders and complicates deep understanding of network state and operational health, which is changing all the time. Thus, it is mission critical for network operations and security teams to have continuous, dynamic network visibility. This enables them to support the business by assuring that the network operating state is congruent with service/operating level agreements for availability, performance, and resilience.

Network observability is a strategic and valuable business enabler for effective and efficient network management in the modern digital era with myriad benefits, which include:

• Enhancing network operations via automated insights and workflows
• Strengthening security, incident management and data breach protection
• Enhancing network performance, while reducing cost & complexity
• Eliminating “alert fatigue” overwhelming IT teams and enhancing the user experience.

Selecting the appropriate technology partner

The trifecta of identify, detect, & protect is the clarion call for CISO’s who are deploying fit for purpose people, processes, and technology safeguards to assure data protection and regulatory compliance, as well as minimize enterprise risk. It is also essential to have the right visibility during security incidents to facilitate recover & respond efforts. (Ref: NIST cybersecurity framework)

A cloud and network security platform is an essential component of a layered security architecture (Defense in Depth) to deliver data and network protections to empower CISO’s, Infrastructure Heads, and their security/operations teams. A cloud and network security solution with superb network observability and complemented by zero trust and SASE is mission critical to protect business value, minimize risk, and assure regulatory compliance. 

Network observability is a strategic guiding principle for Netskope. The Netskope cloud and network security platform provides visibility into data in transit and at rest, illustrates the security posture, and deploys controls and actions to protect the network and corporate data. 

The Netskope One platform provides invaluable insights and management tools to protect enterprise applications, data and network traffic. Benefits include:

• Minimizing risk
• Enhancing agility 
• Reducing complexity 
• Decreasing friction
• Delivering cost savings 

From a Network Observability perspective, the Netskope One platform delivers powerful insights and automation to enable effectiveness and efficiency in network and security operations enabling CISO’s and Infrastructure leaders and their teams to assure superior network performance and a superb user experience.

From my view, here are some of the key technology differentiators for Netskope:

• Private infrastructure: Leverages the private cloud architecture for in-depth visibility to network and packet data.
• Single vendor SASE: Recognized as a sectoral leader by both Gartner and Forrester
• Zero trust: strengthens security and privacy dynamically, leveraging context, risk signals, behavior, packet inspection, device posture, etc.
• Cloud security: Provides better security, network optimization, and traffic management. 
• User experience: Enhances performance via Netskope NewEdge network and Borderless SD-WAN.
• Data loss prevention: Delivers robust, strong and versatile protection for data in motion and data at rest (DLP) via the state-of-the-art architecture.
• Endpoint security: Enables malware detection / isolation via unified management.
• Innovation and leadership: Stays ahead of the curve for technology trends via superior product. development (first to market for generative AI for SaaS security including AI powered CASB), driven by a great culture and visionary leadership.

Conclusion

While the cloud is essential for delivery of digital applications and services, the network is the foundation for delivery in a truly borderless, distributed work environment today. Network observability is mission critical to ensure that trust, data protection, security and privacy are central to your company’s strategy, framework, business processes and regulatory compliance mobilization.