If your organization lacks proper network security, it can lead to security vulnerabilities that result in cyberattacks and data breaches, likely leaving you with negative ramifications.
Damaged reputations, compromised data, legal consequences, and lost customers and revenue are just some of the results that occur following a cyberattack or data breach.
These consequences can be difficult to recover from. For this reason, it is essential to prioritize network security to prevent cyberattacks and their corresponding ramifications.
Edge monitoring can help improve network security in a remote or hybrid work environment. However, if you do not understand the challenges with edge monitoring, you may not be familiar with the potential issues and how you can avoid them.
COEO has helped thousands of organizations with network edge monitoring and has delivered thousands of network security solutions, such as SASE, to improve network security and help prevent cyberattacks.
By the end of this article, you will understand what edge monitoring is, the challenges with edge monitoring, how to prevent those challenges, and whether edge monitoring is appropriate for your organization.
What is network edge monitoring?
A network edge is an area where a device, such as a computer or phone, or a local network interfaces with the internet, and is a security boundary where firewalls are placed to keep your network safe from security threats.
All of the devices within your network will typically connect through your network to a firewall. The firewall sits at your network’s edge and acts as a barrier for your network.
Edge monitoring collects and analyzes network logs and metrics from edge workloads and devices. It is important to monitor the edge of your network to identify the performance of your devices and edge security.
If your organization does not actively monitor its network edge, performance issues can take place, resulting in device failures, high latency, and security breaches and vulnerabilities.
Security breaches that start on the edge can remain undetected until they evolve into larger attacks, which, by that point, are often too late.
Network edge monitoring helps get in front of these issues early so they can identify and mitigate breaches at the edge before they become large attacks.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about network edge monitoring, you can schedule an appointment.
The challenges of network edge monitoring
Now you understand what network edge monitoring is. However, if you are unaware of the challenges of network edge monitoring, you may not understand what to do when these challenges affect your network. Some of the challenges of network edge monitoring include:
Resource limitations
Edge devices may have limited memory and storage resources, which can limit the ability to process and monitor data at the edge.
Unique data formats
Some edge workloads generate network logs and metrics in formats that certain cloud-based monitoring software do not support.
Because of this, if your organization is looking to use specialized software for edge monitoring, it is important to verify the format of your edge workloads to see if the software will support the logs.
Irregular network connectivity
In today’s remote or hybrid network environment, edge devices are not continuously connected to the business network.
When edge devices are connected to other networks outside of the company network, it is much more challenging to monitor and collect data from these devices.
While it is possible to collect data from a device when it is reconnected to the network, it is impossible to monitor edge devices in real-time when they are constantly disconnected and reconnected to the company network.
High latency
When integrating and monitoring data from multiple edge devices, it can cause network latency, resulting in data syncing issues when certain devices upload data faster than others.
Latency and data syncing issues can be challenging when simultaneous events occur on different devices. This complicates the detection of performance or security challenges on edge devices.
How to prevent edge monitoring challenges
Now you understand what network edge monitoring is and the challenges with edge monitoring. However, you must also understand how to prevent these challenges from happening.
Some of the ways you can prevent the challenges with edge monitoring include standardizing network logs, using centralized monitoring, and monitoring the network edge in real-time; if necessary.
If you would like more information about some of the ways to effectively monitor the network edge while avoiding the challenges of edge monitoring, read this article to learn about the best practices for edge monitoring.
Is network edge monitoring appropriate for your organization?
Now you understand what network edge monitoring is, the challenges with edge monitoring, and how to prevent these challenges. However, it is also important that you understand whether network edge monitoring is appropriate for your organization.
If your organization operates in a remote or hybrid work environment, network edge monitoring may be appropriate to monitor devices that are accessing the network from various locations.
Determining whether network edge monitoring is appropriate for your organization
Now you understand what network edge monitoring is, the challenges with edge monitoring, how to prevent these challenges, and whether edge monitoring is appropriate for your organization. This will help you determine whether your organization should move forward with edge monitoring.
No organization can afford to have network security vulnerabilities that lead to cyberattacks and data breaches, causing negative ramifications to the organization.
These consequences include damaged business reputations, compromised sensitive data, legal consequences, and lost customers and revenue.
COEO understands how important network security is and has helped thousands of organizations with their network edge monitoring and delivered thousands of network security solutions like SASE to help them improve overall network security.
We want you to understand the challenges of network edge monitoring so you know what to look for and how to prevent them from harming your network.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about network edge monitoring, you can schedule an appointment.
Now that you understand the challenges with network edge monitoring, check out this article to learn about how to avoid these challenges by following the best practices of network monitoring:
