What is Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)?

As businesses continue to establish an online presence, it is vital to monitor and control the vast traffic that goes through their networks. This an exemplary tool can improve the security and functionality of their online business activity.

Whether you are a network or a system admin, monitoring and managing potential network issues before evolving into production issues is crucial. With reliable network management software, it is easy to observe the performance of your IT infrastructure. Such software enables you to detect any network issues and fix them promptly.

Importance of (NTA)

1. Improves your network’s security

With the right network traffic monitoring solution, it is easy for business owners to track rogue traffic and ransomware attacks on their network. Even with strong firewalls in place, you still need to monitor traffic effectively and watch out for any suspicious activity. As a result, you will gain valuable insight, validate rules, and keep track of network traffic-based alerts on your network.

2. Enhances visibility

Monitoring traffic also aids in the management and increased visibility of your entire network. Such tools help pinpoint things like device inventory, large downloads, and suspicious inbound and outbound traffic activity. Thus, NTA solutions help analyze all the devices on your network to ensure they are running correctly.

3. Increases network functionality

By monitoring the performance and activity on your network, NTA tools give you valuable insight on how to optimize its operation further. The software provides information on heavy-usage or a spike in bandwidth and which activities use more bandwidth. An excellent network traffic analysis solution serves as the single source of information as it identifies what is actually on the network. In turn, admins can use this information to determine the where, what, and who in real-time.

4. Provides historical analytics and audits

A reliable NTA tool allows you to set up network benchmarks, troubleshoot, and plan future growth. It also combines all network traffic statistics and filters from a variety of customizable reports. As a result, you can easily gain access to your network’s past audits and analytics to review its performance further.

5. Deal with emerging security threats and performance-affecting malware

Security threats like malware and viruses can drastically affect your network’s functionality. For instance, malware is likely to attempt to disable a device from the network or use up high bandwidth. Thus, it is essential to keep an eye on security threats on your business network. NTA solutions examine your entire network’s communications and alert you of any security threat invasion in real-time.

Furthermore, such tools continuously analyze the network to find abnormal communications and patterns. Through machine learning capabilities and artificial intelligence, NTA tools can also identify new cybersecurity threats. Thus, allowing your team to keep ahead of any evolving threats.

Conclusion

As network and communication infrastructure develops in complexity and size, a complete understanding and view of your network’s environment come in handy. With the right NTA tool, you can easily keep track of the source, rate, type, and destination of traffic on your network.