An increasing number of security tools are providing automation capabilities to reduce the burden on security specialists when it comes to intrusion prevention, network access control, endpoint security and mobile device management. But to a large degree, these features sit unused. Legitimate worries about blocking business traffic accidentally and keeping business from operating as it needs to, or quarantining devices and angering users keep admins reluctant from turning on automation. Or, there isn’t enough time to fine tune the automation and roll it out.
“Like with self-driving cars or any technology that aims to take people out of the driver’s seat, there’s a natural reluctance to hand over something as important as security to an automated tool,” says Bob Violino of NetworkWorld. “On the other hand, costly data breaches are on the rise, and finding experienced cybersecurity professionals is becoming more difficult, leaving security pros overwhelmed.”
This is really no different from the network management world. It’s scary to give control over to a machine.
But, better network automation from solutions like Uplogix, and a growing burden on network administrators is driving a change to turn on more automation. This is allowing network professionals to work smarter, not harder.
Uplogix provides numerous recovery procedures that address common faults without human intervention such as automatically rebooting a hung, or wedged, device to multiple types of configuration recovery. Customization is possible within a robust automation framework that allows end-users to modify prepackaged—or define sequential and conditional—recovery procedures that align with their support practices or run book. For example, the recovery progression might be Clear Service Module -> Cycle Interface -> Show Tech -> Reboot -> Cycle Power.
By allowing flexibility and control of the automation, it’s a little easier for network administrators to experiment with, tune and deploy meaningful automation so that they can focus on the non-routine and innovative tasks that need their full attention.