Verizon Business is today announcing a series of products to allow managers to better provision services and ensure the security of their networks. At the highest level of network management, the company is deploying the MPLS Transport Manager of CA’s Spectrum Infrastructure Manager 9.1 product to manage global networks. In addition, the company is adding features to its cloud-based firewall. Finally, the company is announcing the availability of an Internet Security Assessment service.
The Asset Assurance service of Verizon Business’ Private IP service allows managers to see the performance of every device on their network whether that device is on a Verizon network or another provider’s network, Danellie Young, Verizon Business executive director of global IP services told InternetNews.com.
The product delivers different data to line level managers and upper managers. “We optimize screens for a specific audience,” said Young.
The visual representation of the network (see screen shot at left) saves time, added Paul Conti, CA principal consultant. “The detailed visibility it provides is useful,” he said. “Many of our customers have a problem achieving the consolidation of tools. We hope this can satisfy many if not most of the needs of infrastructure management. Many of our customers have 20 tools that do 20 different things.”
Administrators can see the status of a device (red, yellow, or green) and click on it to obtain more data.
This ability to drill down to individual devices is aided by initiatives from hardware vendors such as Cisco.
With network visibility comes an increased awareness of security risks, which are plentiful after mergers, acquisitions, and layoffs, Jonathan Nguyen-Duy, director of Verizon Business’ security solutions told InternetNews.com.
“The Internet Security Assessment identifies a broad range of risks, analyzes the risk level, and recommends a plan to mitigate those risk,” he said.
Once those risks are remediated, the firewall helps keep the network secure, he added.
The company has had a firewall for some time, he said (delivering the industry’s first DDoS protection in the cloud five years ago, for example) but is today connecting that firewall to its Managed Security Services offering to deliver 24 x 7 support, event monitoring, and log storage.