What's the value of network troubleshooting?
Fast, effective network troubleshooting is a cornerstone of business resilience. Today's networks perform more mission-critical business tasks than ever. Without robust troubleshooting and speedy resolution of issues, networks can suffer costly downtime.
The cost of downtime includes reduced productivity and the economic impacts of disrupted or underperforming services, data breaches, and malware. These consequences can result in steep costs and cause long-lasting damage to brands.
How do organizations handle troubleshooting?
Of course, troubleshooting isn't just about resetting user passwords or restarting devices. Especially in large organizations, it's about a set of procedures, practices, and tools used to process numerous requests by a complex mix of users and dispersed network assets and infrastructure.
Typically, a large organization has an entire team devoted to network troubleshooting. The team's engineers address problems at various levels: Tier 1 for basic issues such as password resets, Tier 2 for issues that can't be resolved by Tier 1, and Tier 3 for mission-critical issues.
Frequently, Tier 1 troubleshooting is outsourced. An escalation framework is used to route requests efficiently and make sure that upper-level engineers are tasked appropriately.
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and automation have been used to bridge skills gaps. These technologies offer guided remediation tools that empower Tier 1 engineers to solve complex network problems more rapidly.
Many organizations have separate network troubleshooting tools, but the addition of these tools may require training and management by IT departments. More commonly, network troubleshooting is embedded in a network management system (NMS).
How do NMSs relate to troubleshooting?
In large organizations, network troubleshooting teams are not simply waiting for users to report issues.
An NMS monitors networks continuously. It sends status updates—and alerts, when needed—on network key performance indicators (KPIs) such as connection speed, bandwidth, latency, users, and access.
The NMS performs monitoring by querying the various parts and nodes of the network to update status, at an interval determined by the IT team. Newer network elements, however, use telemetry to transmit their KPIs automatically.
An essential part of network troubleshooting is tracking and collecting data on network events. A system of IT service management (ITSM) tickets is used for this process. The data aggregated from the tickets can provide insights to identify problem areas and guide network optimization and upgrades.
