I'm looking for some advice from other enterprise network teams.
At my organization we use Cisco DNA, Splunk, but our access and licensing are fairly limited, so we're looking at other options that can provide better network visibility and operational insight.
While researching, I came across a platform called IPSense. Has anyone here used it or heard of it? I'm particularly interested because it appears to provide IPAM, network visibility, and Fortinet SD-WAN monitoring.
Our environment is a mix of Cisco switching and Fortinet firewalls/SD-WAN, and I'm trying to understand how other organizations solve these operational challenges.
A few questions I'd appreciate your thoughts on:
- How do you manage and monitor Fortinet SD-WAN when the rest of your network is primarily Cisco?
- If your manager asked, "Show me every network that connects to our Chicago site," how long would it take you to answer?
- What tools do you use to track IP addresses, subnets, VLANs, and open ports? We're still relying on multiple Excel spreadsheets, and it's becoming difficult to maintain.
- Can Cisco DNA Center or Splunk provide this level of visibility, or are you using additional tools such as an IPAM or network management platform?
- How do you keep your network topology and Visio diagrams up to date? We typically update ours only twice a year, so they're often out of date by the time we need them.
I'd really like to hear what tools and processes other enterprise teams are using. Any recommendations or lessons learned would be greatly appreciated.
