In an ideal world, NetOps teams operate and maintain the network while SecOps teams protect the network and all company systems it connects from outside threats. Since these functions are distinct, it makes sense that each team uses its own tools, with very little overlap in the information they collect.
However, the issue with this approach is that attackers exist in the real world, where most attacks either target the network directly or use the network to propagate and extract data. This means NetOps teams need to worry about security (as in attacks that could impact network availability), and SecOps teams need to worry about everything that is going on in their network. In the real world, using different tools and separate data sources leads to gaps in visibility, longer times to remediation, and finger-pointing.
When NetOps and SecOps aren’t on the same page, visibility issues can emerge, leading to duplicated efforts, wasted resources, and security issues that could leave your organization vulnerable. Bringing these teams together can improve incident response times, optimize resource use, and give you a clearer, more complete view of your entire environment.
Why Unify NetOps and SecOps?
Network and security teams typically manage their own data and don’t have an easy way to share it. This siloed approach creates challenges, especially when it comes to visibility. The network is a common entry point for bad actors, making it even more important to unify visibility between teams.
The benefits of unifying teams include:
Improved security and efficiency
Unified visibility helps teams detect and fix problems faster. Take, for example, a hospital we recently worked with. One morning, staff arrived to find the internet “down.” They called for help, thinking it was an outage. But the real issue wasn’t an outage at all—it was that the internet connection ran at almost 100% capacity.
With their network observability platform, the team quickly identified the issue. By checking the internet-facing connection, they saw it was almost maxed out. They applied filters, navigated in context, and uncovered a flood of data streaming from the internet to their virtual desktop environment. Thanks to this insight, they were able to fix the problem in minutes instead of hours.
In another case, a team spotted a host accessing servers via SSH with an unusually high number of sessions, a red flag for a potential brute-force login attack. By quickly pulling up shared network and security data in context, they were able to take action and address the threat before it escalated.
Cost savings and resource optimization
Bringing NetOps and SecOps together helps organizations avoid the costly mistake of doubling up on tools, infrastructure, and training. This approach leads to major cost savings and better resource use. Believe it or not, we’ve seen network and security teams buy the same solution twice, paying double for both the software and services without even realizing it. By unifying these teams, you can share resources and cut overall costs.
Improved visibility and data utilization
Unifying network and security teams gives you a full view of both on-premises and cloud environments. With netflow data from on-premise systems and top flow logs from the cloud, your team can quickly spot what’s draining resources and efficiently detect and resolve threats and issues.
How Do We Unify Teams?
Unifying teams begins with creating full visibility into shared data. Rather than each team managing its own data with separate tools, they collaborate by sharing information and resources. Here are a few key things to consider for successfully bringing your teams together.
Leverage Common Data Sources
Netflow data is a key bridge between NetOps and SecOps. By collecting and analyzing flow data from both on-premises and cloud environments, teams can get a complete view of network activity, supporting both operational and security functions.
Implement Unified Tools and Platforms
Adopting solutions that normalize data from various sources to a common schema enables a unified view across environments. This approach helps overcome the challenge of different teams using separate tools and data sources.
Enhance Context and Visibility
Adding business context and enrichment to network data allows for more meaningful insights. For example, translating IP addresses into business units or applications provides valuable context for both network and security teams. Instead of just asking, “Why is IP address one, two, or three talking to system five, six, or seven?” you have the granularity to understand that someone in your warehouse is trying to access your accounting system. That context changes everything.
Focus on Shared Use Cases
Identify shared use cases around security, cost control, performance, and availability. These common use cases allow you to address multiple needs with shared data, and act as a gateway to unify network and security team operations.
As AI and machine learning platforms evolve to help network and security teams detect and address threats faster, their effectiveness relies on high-quality, shared data. Without it, these tools can’t perform as expected. Unifying teams supports data consolidation and ensures consistent data quality, offering complete and shared visibility.
How ElastiFlow Can Help Unify Teams
ElastiFlow collects network flow data from various sources, including on-prem devices and cloud environments, and normalizes it to a common schema. This provides a unified view of your entire infrastructure, eliminating the need for multiple tools and screens.
By leveraging network flow data, the platform also provides insights into “who’s talking to whom” and the nature of those conversations—valuable for both network performance and security teams, as it allows a deep forensic analysis of which path a potential attacker took through the network. ElastiFlow’s NetObserv platform also supports use cases that benefit both NetOps and SecOps, including:
Performance and availability troubleshooting
ElastiFlow supports capacity planning and cost control, especially for cloud environments and security and observability, such as detecting potential brute force attacks or port scanning.
Context enrichment
ElastiFlow adds business context to flow data, translating IP addresses into more meaningful information like business units or applications. This enhanced context helps both teams understand the significance of network activities.
Scalable platform
ElastiFlow can handle high volumes of unsampled flow data in real time. For example, if you come to us with a million flow records per second, that’s no problem. We know how to manage that volume and make the data usable in real time.
Network intelligence
ElastiFlow’s NetIntel enhances flow data with network intelligence, identifying public applications, cloud providers, and potential security threats. It allows teams to distinguish between internal issues and external service problems, providing actionable insights for both network operations and security teams.
With these capabilities, ElastiFlow unifies teams, giving them comprehensive visibility, scalability, and actionable insights to safeguard against threats and achieve optimal network performance.
Do you want to learn more about supporting faster threat response and closing visibility gaps? We created a comprehensive guide, “Top Network Security Problems: How Network Traffic Data Keeps You Ahead of Threats,” to help you get started.
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