Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

Active network infrastructure management is a key element of any managed service offering. Traditionally, network management has involved a lot of tedious manual work, making it expensive and very hard to scale. And that’s why many MSPs have shied away from actively managing the network. But not managing network infrastructure at all is a risk to your business. Your clients likely expect you’re looking after the network whether you’ve promised it or not.

This is the third and final instalment in a series on Here’s What a Network Needs After a Cloud Migration. Part 1 looked at how to redesign the LAN. Part 2 outlined strategies for the Internet connection. One of the things that becomes more important in a cloud-based application environment is managing user access and authentication.

Part 2 in our series on Here’s What a Network Needs After a Cloud Migration. Part 1 looked at how to redesign the LAN. When a company’s application infrastructure moves to the cloud, a reliable Internet connection becomes mandatory. Hiccups in Internet service that might have been an inconvenience when apps were in-house now grind the business to a halt. Unfortunately, the Internet link happens to be the single least reliable element in an IT infrastructure.

By now, most organizations have realized the benefits of moving some, most, or all of their business applications to the cloud. The cloud typically offers better security and performance, at a lower price, than housing resources on-premises. You may have helped them in that migration or you may have been hired after it was complete. Either way, a client with cloud hosting has different network requirements than one whose infrastructure is primarily on-premises.