Managed Network Infrastructure Security: Why It Matters

Your network infrastructure takes time and effort to strategize and develop. Any compromise to your network or infrastructure can disrupt connectivity, communication, and other operational activities. Network infrastructure security is crucial to your productivity.

Protecting your network infrastructure ensures that it functions optimally and seamlessly. However, network infrastructure security can be complicated due to the different structures, services, and other elements involved. These can include hardware such as routers and cables, software like firewalls and management systems, and satellite, DSL, or wireless protocols.

Managed network infrastructure security describes the process of implementing and managing preventative measures to protect your underlying network infrastructure. This guide will help you understand more about how it works and why it matters.

How does network infrastructure security work?

Each piece of your network presents a potential entry point for hackers, viruses, and other bad actors. Network infrastructure security secures and defends these entry points and the underlying infrastructure against malicious activity and deep system infiltration.

Establishing network infrastructure security requires regular and consistent effort. Think about implementing a security method as the first step in your security strategy instead of treating it as a one-time process. Additional approaches, maintenance, and ongoing active processes will round out your network infrastructure security to provide constant, thorough protection.

The way your network infrastructure security works will depend on whether your network devices exist in a traditional on-premises environment or you are primarily using cloud solutions. Most modern devices have built-in security and reporting features at every level. You should track the activity on your gateway devices and leverage tools that analyze traffic in real-time as well.

What are the benefits of managed network infrastructure security?

Network infrastructure devices can be easy targets, which is why network infrastructure security is so crucial. However, once security measures are installed, these devices still need to be managed to maintain a high security level. Managed network infrastructure security can provide many advantages to your organization. Here are just a few:

  • Real-time intrusion detection: if a malicious actor gains access to your network, devices, or data, you will want to know right away – not after damage has already been done. With managed network infrastructure security, you will have an expert available to review data, detect potential intrusions, and respond to this information meaningfully.
  • Mitigation of potential damages or loss: corporate espionage may not be as dramatic or exciting as it looks in spy movies, but it is a genuine threat to intellectual property that could potentially be worth millions of dollars or more. Other parties, including your competitors, have an incentive to get their hands on your data, so it is crucial to protect your network.
  • Auditing and event logging for compliance: in the fast-moving life sciences industry, any company, no matter what size, is likely subject to various compliance burdens or might become publicly traded or acquired by larger companies. Managed network infrastructure security is valuable and necessary as a matter of diligence.

While managed network infrastructure security is vital for your company’s protection, it also has other practical applications that make it an essential part of your IT strategy.

What needs to be done to implement and manage a network infrastructure security system?

Since network infrastructure security is so crucial, it can be daunting to consider the task of implementing and managing a comprehensive, reliable security system. The good news is that a great deal of what you need to do overlaps with programs and policies your company needs anyways.

For example, there is a strong possibility you have to develop compliance programs that cover people, policy, and procedure requirements and tactics for PCI and SEC regulations. Many of these requirements and tactics overlap with the IT activity involved in establishing a network infrastructure security system.

Even better, when you partner with an experienced IT service provider, you can rely on their expertise and entrust them with most of the management activity. For example, Data Evolution can coordinate real-time monitoring and remediating any identified issues. Our experts can also leverage our boilerplate programs or develop custom programs to deliver a managed response.

Having policies, tools, and controls in place is a great start and often required for PCI, SEC, and other compliance. The real difference is made when you have experts reviewing data and responding to events. Managed network infrastructure security is crucial for protecting your data, entry points, endpoints, and more.

Do you have additional questions about managed network infrastructure security and how to implement a program for your organization? Talk to your Data Evolution experts to learn more.