More "Reactive" instrumentation to appease the regulators. Does it make the network more secure? No. It's just another means to react every time an alarm goes off.

What makes network management so challenging is all the information. Reams and reams of data and NO reasonably organized ways to view it all. So companies have developed all these "extremely expensive" boxes to sort through all the data and ONLY present that which is important. But what of the trends that don't quite reach the level of the alarm? It's not quite a problem yet because it hasn't triggered an event. Are problems only problems when someone has to 'react to them?' Unfortunately, today, being proactive means people are doing event management, fighting fires and reacting to events as the occur. What is needed are more "management events." These are circumstances where decision makers and stakeholders convene to evaluate operations in their entirety. They review controls, policies and the population and identify what's not working properly, where policies need some reinforcement and what's the priority. They plan and execute with a goal in mind and don't just wait around for the next event which they have to react to. There is a difference between event management and a management event. People just have to unclog their minds of all the technology smoke and mirrors, such as illustrated in this story, and start doing their home work rather than delegating it to expensive robot technology.

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