Command, control, and communications (C3) systems are fundamental to all military operations, and the network is the backbone to keeping the warfighter up to date and out of harm's way. The right network modernization strategies will enable the latest C3 capabilities to provide real-time situation awareness and decision support for today’s military operations.
JWICS Network Modernization
Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System (JWICS) network modernization and transformation —from the data center, to the wide area network (WAN), and to the user — are necessary and integral facets of broader mission efforts. User demands are increasing, data complexity is at unheard of levels, and every successful mission depends on the IT infrastructure supporting it.
Network modernization involves many elements such as installing the latest network hardware, software-defined technologies that deliver centralized network management and orchestration, and automation of network delivery performance remediation for an optimal user experience. Success cannot be realized without network monitoring software strategies that future-proof all of these modernization efforts.
Build Network Monitoring Strategies for JWICS Modernization Success
Modernizing the network means modernizing network monitoring, too. Successful network monitoring strategies, processes, and workflows enable commanders and decision makers to rapidly evaluate, select, and execute effective courses of action to accomplish the mission.
High-Scale Monitoring and Data Collection
Advanced network monitoring software should be able to easily scale to hundreds of thousands of JWICS network devices and millions of interfaces. Network monitoring scale doesn’t mean just being able to monitor large networks. It means being able to collect, correlate, and normalize millions of collected metrics from multi-vendor sources that all speak their own networking language. The key is identifying a solution that can surface this disparate data into a context that network operators can quickly and easily gain actionable intelligence from, no matter what vendor technology is supporting the mission.
Real-Time Operational Visibility Anywhere
In order for the operations team to optimize network performance to meet mission goals, they need true end-to-end, real-time visibility across any network technology, cloud, or geographic location. This granular visibility across any network architecture, powered by modern network telemetry, delivers a complete hop-by-hop picture of modern network activity from the data center, into the cloud, and out to the analyst and warfighter in the field. Operational visibility into packet loss, network latency, jitter, and capacity enables teams to dive deeply into the root cause of network delivery of the JWICS user’s digital experience.
Operationalize the Warfighter Digital Experience for the Network Operations Center
Routing analyst user experience metrics through NetOps standard operating procedures and workflows enables operators to focus their triage attention on mission objectives rather than chasing unrelated spikes in network activity. Surfacing user experience metrics alongside network performance data leads to improved troubleshooting times and faster root cause analysis of any degradation impacting network delivery.
These network monitoring workflows should always be backed by alarms, events, topology, performance, faults, flows, logs, configurations, analytics, and user experience metrics. Network monitoring workflows should also include alarm noise reduction, configuration management capabilities, and predictions and analytics based on baselining network performance. Missing just one of these collected metrics and capabilities means the root cause could be hidden from the operations teams.
Validate the Warfighter Digital Experience with Active Testing of Network Delivery
Active monitoring of mission critical network delivery combines two core types of active testing via network and web synthetics. For network delivery, active, continuous monitoring should always provide hop-by-hop visibility along any multi-vendor, multi-technology network path via metrics like TCP, UDP, and ICMP. This active monitoring should be lightweight with no impact on network performance, ensuring that you have a record of every performance issue along with actionable diagnostics that isolate the offending network devices(s). Once a performance issue is identified, the network monitoring software should increase its testing to validate and further analyze the point of degradation, then trigger the appropriate steps for remediation.
Active testing of network delivery should always be utilized before, during, and after modern network deployments, like SD-WAN. Active testing is necessary so that network operations can re-architect network delivery, prioritize mission critical data delivery over the network, and validate the JWICS user’s digital experience.
One Vendor to Help Streamline Processes, Procurement, Licensing and Troubleshooting
When evaluating network monitoring solutions that provide vendor-agnostic, modern network observability from pilot to deployment, consider a networking company with decades of experience in the space. Look for a vendor that unifies coverage across traditional and modern, multi-vendor network technologies to support your network transformation efforts. Vendors that offer portfolio licensing agreements across application, infrastructure, network, and user experience means one vendor will also streamline efforts across proofs of concept, procurement, licensing, support, and more.
Measured Outcomes for JWICS Modernization and Mission Success
Advanced network monitoring strategies that drive successful network modernization initiatives cannot be measured just in reduced network-related helpdesk tickets or improved troubleshooting times. Operational benefits must enable real mission objectives and success. While your network monitoring software may be future-proofing and driving successful modernization efforts, ask yourself if the solution is enabling the following agency objectives:
- Maintain technological superiority over our adversaries
- Provide the analyst or warfighter a flawless experience
- Achieve mission objectives
- Avoid problems
- Deliver resilient service
Visit Broadcom Software at DoDIIS 2022
For 20 years, the DoDIIS Worldwide Conference has served as the premier information technology conference to hear from distinguished speakers, collaborate with trusted partners, and experience groundbreaking technical solutions to support the warfighter.
Broadcom Software is proud to be debuting the Experience-Driven Network Operations Center at booth #905 along with a Lunch and Learn session on Tuesday, Dec 13, at 11:55am in the Pearl Theater.
Jeremy Rossbach
As the Chief Technical Evangelist for NetOps by Broadcom, Jeremy is passionate about meeting with customers to identify their IT operational challenges and produce solutions that fit their business and network transformation goals. Prior to joining Broadcom, he spent over 15+ years working in IT, across both public...
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