NETWORK DISCOVERY
How well do you really know your business network?
Many businesses and SMEs think about their network when it's first installed but never think of it again until a problem brings the business to a halt. That's too late for any business that wants to continue to be successful and productive every day. Modern networks are dynamic, especially if your business also relies on or provides WiFi connections or allows employees to use personal devices like laptops and mobile phones. Tracking who and what is on your network these days is not realistic if you're still relying on spreadsheets and sticky labels.
We often find hundreds of unrecognized devices on a single business network...
We will conduct a week long Network Discovery and catalog every device and connection on your network. At the beginning of the week, a tiny secure application—called a collector—is installed on your network and crawls through the network in a similar fashion to search engines finding web pages.
We often find hundreds of unrecognized devices on a single business network that have access to the Internet or even network storage drives without the client's knowledge. Allowing unauthorized devices to access your network can affect your network performance and make your network vulnerable to hackers and other security threats.
After a week of discovery, we'll provide you a full map of your network and a complete inventory of every connected device on your network.
Will an expert visit my business?
Our Network Discovery, Expert Network Assessment, and Managed Network Services are available worldwide. The Network Discovery does not typically require one of our experts to visit your location. The collector is easy to install with a few simple instructions. It only requires a Windows PC to be plugged in and powered on for the full discovery period (one week).
An expert will usually visit your location if the Network Discovery is part of setting up the Expert Network Assessment or other services and your business does not have its own IT professionals. Currently, travel outside of the Budapest, Hungary area is billable at our standard travel rates.
How secure is my network information?
We are in the business of network security, which is why our network tools and our cloud-based management system are built from the ground up with security in mind. We employ the latest security standards and practices to keep your information encrypted and safe.
What is the collector and what does it do?
The Network Discovery begins by installing the collector—a tiny command-line utility—on a network. The collector is a piece of code that uses several protocols to gather information about the network, such as topology details, configurations, and network statistics. The collector summarizes and sends that information to secure servers over an encrypted connection.
When the collector is deployed on a network, it's uniquely configured to be associated only for your account. There's no way your network information can be sent to another location, either accidentally or purposefully.
The collector can only establish an outbound connection to an endpoint configured for your account. No inbound connections can be established through the connector.
What information is collected and how is it handled?
Our Network Discovery system needs network device credential information (i.e. router logins) to see devices and how they're connected to one another. In preparation for the Network Discovery, you can create custom logins for the collector and delete them at the end of the week.
Device configuration data also helps our automated system better understand a network. Our system analyzes how configuration changes affect performance, allowing us to optimize your network performance over time. Credentials and configuration data is encrypted using AES-128.
The collector does not see any traffic content sent through your network. For example, if someone sends an email on your network, the collector will know and record how many bytes were transmitted. But there is no way for our system to read the content of the transmitted packets.
How is the network information used?
The network information gathered by the collector is used only to deliver product and service features. For example, the information is used to draw a detailed network map, create device profiles for inventory, and log device configurations. Our system analyzes, distills, and visually renders network information, then shows it only to your approved users through a secure login from a web browser or as printed documents delivered to you at the end of the discovery period.
How is the information kept safe in the cloud?
Like many service offerings, we store data in a cloud-hosted, multi-account environment. We utilize third-party service providers like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and others to offer these services to you. We follow industry best practices in every aspect of secure data collection and storage and we require the same of our vendors.
Our cloud-based systems use an industry standard four-tier architecture, with security protocols at every layer. It is impossible for non-approved personnel to access customer information. Systems holding customer data are not exposed publicly and can only be accessed by authorized personnel through a controlled access mechanism. Additionally, we regularly rotate credentials based on industry best practices.