A couple weeks ago in my blog, Keeping Your Business Safe, I mentioned that the term Network Management means different things to different people. As a business technology service provider, when we use that term, it means we can install and manage your routers, firewalls, network switches, jacks and wireless access points. This service is sought after by many small to medium-sized businesses (SMB) who don’t have an in-house IT team. What can network management look like for your SMB? Let’s dive deeper.
Network Management Services
- Jacks — To provide an employee’s workstation with connectivity to the internet you’ll have to have jacks installed into your business. These types of jacks are typically set up to take a plugin from an ethernet cable.
- Routers — Are physical devices. They direct data packets between different networks. In technical talk, this typically means it’s directing traffic between a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN) or the internet.
- Network Switches — is another device that finds itself connected to the router and then connects multiple devices within a local area network (LAN) and manages the flow of data between them.
- Wireless Access Points — Also known as (WAP) is a device that allows wireless devices via Wi-Fi to connect to your wired network.
- Firewalls — Network Managed Firewalls are centrally controlled and maintained. This provides you with not only centralized management, but also improved security, compliance, scalability, monitoring, and reporting.
As the full circle of network management is pictured, you’ve got to have voice and data wiring that leads to the jacks, then connecting to your routers, network switches, wireless access points, and network managed firewall. The days of typewriters are gone. The internet is here to stay and making sure your business is connected correctly, and securely are keys to success.
