What is Smart Network Management

The term Smart Network Management does not describe a specific network technology or product. Instead, it describes a range of features and functionality delivered using visualisation tools, automation and artificial intelligence that simplify and automate the delivery, monitoring and management of network services in an increasingly complex and demanding environment.

From a network user or client perspective, Smart Network Management ensures they are provided with an appropriate level of network service and access based on user type, application, client device and location.

From a network team perspective, Smart Network Management improves visibility and efficiency, providing network teams with tools and information to connect and configure client devices, monitor and manage network and application performance, identify and resolve network issues, and keep the network secure.

Increasingly, applications and data are hosted in the cloud, meaning several networks, services and suppliers are involved in ensuring a reliable user experience. Smart Network Management can help monitor and manage these, providing end-to-end visibility of both on-premise applications and cloud services. Smart Network Management solutions are usually (though not exclusively) provided as a cloud-based service.

Smart Network Management does not replace existing technologies or functionality, such as software defined networking (SDN), intrusion detection (IDS), secure access service edge (SASE), 802.1x, or zero trust network access.  Equally, use of all these technologies is not a prerequisite of implementing Smart Network Management. Instead, Smart Network Management describes a set of tools and functionality that can be used to monitor and manage a network that often uses one or several of these kinds of technologies.

Smart Network Management does not necessarily require new network infrastructure, in many cases health organisations will be able to use the elements of functionality it offers to better manage their existing infrastructure.

Figure 1 summarises some of the headline Smart Network Management features and functionality. The next section of this report provides further detail on this functionality and the challenges it can help to address.

Figure 1: Examples of Smart Network Management features and functionality.

This report uses the term Smart Network Management to describe a range of features and functionality. This is used as a manufacturer-agnostic term. Manufacturers themselves use a range of names to refer to this functionality. These can include ‘next-generation networking', 'AI networking’, 'artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps)', 'software defined access' or 'advanced networks'.

Not all manufacturers will offer all of the functionality detailed in this report. In addition, manufacturers’ Smart Network Management offerings continue to develop, meaning new and enhanced functionality is being regularly released. An example of this is the incorporation of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Some capability is already offered by manufacturers, however, this is likely to increase in the near future given the opportunities the technology offers to process the vast amounts of data available to provide insights into network usage, performance issues and resolution, and to improve cyber security.

Section 5 contains details of the Smart Network Management offering from a number of network equipment providers. This includes details of the product and feature naming used by these manufacturers.