Advantages of using a network configuration management tool
Network Configuration Management ensures that network devices in an organization function optimally and securely. Our NCM tool helps address network configuration and change management, while ensuring compliance.
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Improved Security
Reduce human errors, easily coordinate between teams, and develop disaster recovery plans. Prevent security threats by proactively detecting firmware vulnerabilities and getting up-to-date information about patch availability.
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Intuitive Features
Review device configuration changes, recover older versions, or revert them with a single click. You can also compare configurations and take action as required.
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Intelligent Dashboard
Automate and schedule backups, track unauthorized changes, and receive alerts from a unified screen. Use the Operational Dashboard to get an at-a-glance status of all NCM devices and the Firmware Vulnerabilities Dashboard to identify risks quickly.
Key features of Site24x7's Network Configuration Manager
Monitor any device in your network
Site24x7's NCM supports devices from over 75 vendors and more than 300 device templates to fetch and manage your network configurations. If required, you can also create custom device templates to monitor any device in your network.
Identify firmware vulnerabilities
Firmware vulnerabilities can lead to critical security issues that could put your networks at risk. However, NCM helps you identify firmware vulnerabilities proactively and take corrective action, like upgrading your firmware, before any threats occur.
Automate configuration backups
Automate configuration backups whenever there's a change in startup and running configurations. You can also schedule configuration backups based on your organization's needs at predefined intervals to save time and effort.
Compare configurations
Compare the configuration details of your devices with their baseline, startup, running, or previous configurations to view and validate the changes. You can also compare the version numbers in real time to analyze the changes, ensuring complete change management.
Track unauthorized changes
Not all users are authorized to perform configuration changes. To understand if the change is authorized, you can view current configurations and their type to check the validity of the transaction. You can revert changes if they are not performed by authorized users.
Restore configurations for disaster recovery
Be it baseline, running, or start-up configuration, you can recover any last approved version of the device configuration after network mishaps or unforeseen events—with a single click.
How does Site24x7 network configuration management work?
When you add a device to NCM for monitoring, Site24x7 maintains a cloud backup of the startup and running device configurations. The best part – it also notifies you whenever a device configuration update occurs. If the changes are unapproved or unauthorized, network administrators can swiftly restore a working device configuration before the changes cause harm to the network. Additionally, you can also view firmware vulnerabilities on that device and across the entire landscape of NCM-monitored devices.
Benefits of using a network configuration management tool
To stay on top of network issues, you need a secure, robust, standalone configuration manager that can roll back effectively and restore the network before any threats cause meaningful damage.
Site24x7's NCM proactively takes backups of configuration versions if there's a change detected. If an outage hits, you can restore a previous stable configuration version and get your network up and running quickly. Site24x7 also offers several benefits that make network device configuration management effortless.
Instant alerts
Scheduling a periodic capture of configuration backups enables network admins to analyze real-time changes in network configuration. If a backup fails or conflicts occur, Site24x7's NCM generates insightful alerts through email, SMS, voice calls, and other third-party integrations like PagerDuty and Slack.
NCM reports
Obtain better visibility from reports that analyze the NCM inventory, startup or running device configuration conflicts, and user activities related to all the configuration events in your network environment. Schedule NCM reports to be sent as PDFs to your team's email ID.
Single-console visibility
Build a custom dashboard to track configuration changes made to major devices. Monitor them continuously by adding widgets that display the device status, backup status, and conflicts in a single view.
Device details from one screen
View device details, including hardware that's being backed up and monitored for configuration changes. This can help you troubleshoot device backup failures.
One solution for all your network management needs
Site24x7 offers network monitoring for device and interface monitoring; network traffic monitoring to analyze flows based on different technologies like NetFlow, J-Flow, and sFlow; and NCM to manage network configuration backups—all from a single, SaaS-based monitoring console. Accomplish hassle-free control over your network from a single console without switching between software packages.
Network Configuration Management (NCM)
Monitor and manage network configurations for different devices
- Cisco IOS Switch
- Cisco IOS Router
- Arista Networks Switch
- Brocade Switch
- Foundry Switch
- FortiGate Firewall - version 4.0 and 5.0
- Cisco ASA
- Cisco Nexus Switch
- CheckPoint Gaia Firewall
- Aruba Controller
- Cisco IOS XR
- Dell EMC-N Series Switch
- HP Procurve Switch
- Citrix Netscaler Firewall
- Dell PowerConnect Switch
- Cisco CatOS Switch
- Mikrotik Router
- PaloAlto Firewall PA-4000
- FortiGate FortiAnalyzer
- SonicWall
- and more.
Overview of network configuration management
What is network configuration management?
Network configuration management (NCM) is the process of managing network device configurations, including backup, restore, and change tracking. Its objective is to determine network stability, security, and reliability, thereby minimizing the risk of failures and improving performance.
Why is network configuration management important?
NCM provides a comprehensive record of network configurations and changes, which can help organizations demonstrate their compliance with security and regulatory requirements. This is especially crucial in industries like healthcare, banking, insurance, and government, where data protection and privacy are of utmost importance.
Additionally, security-focused NCM tools like Site24x7 include firmware vulnerability management, which validates device firmware versions against data from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), helping administrators detect and patch firmware vulnerabilities.
Why choose Site24x7 as your network configuration manager?
Site24x7 provides a complete solution for managing network configurations. It assists network administrators in promptly detecting any problems with device configurations and offers a convenient option to quickly revert to the previous configuration to avoid outages.
The firmware vulnerability manager included in our NCM tool provides a user-friendly dashboard that assists network administrators in protecting their devices against cyberthreats. The tool will notify them if the device is susceptible to exploits by checking the firmware version against data from the NIST.
With a major upcoming update, our NCM will also help ensure network compliance with industry standards like SOX, HIPAA, PCI, and vendor-specific standards like Cisco IOS, or any custom organizational standards. Get in touch with us at support@site24x7.com for early access to the update.