Automated Monitoring Is Necessary

I started as a network admin in ’93, doing data and voice over muxes and PSTN lines. Everything was basic — and also so precarious. In those days, if a cable became unplugged you only found out hours later after tracing it by hand all the way and, perhaps, with a flicker of a console log to suggest something might be wrong. Fast forward to the classic date of Slammer worm – 2003 if memory serves. Melting down systems, chaos at the network edge and yet no automated tools that retained sophistication capable of keeping up.

Here’s the reality — manual tracking no longer suffices. But networks now are phenomenally complex. We have swapped simple point-to-point links for sprawling, hybrid architectures. You need real-time data, but you don’t want to pull your hair out.

With monitoring, what motivates the need is the trade-off between increasing the automation of what you are doing and reducing the stakes by having better monitoring.

• Catch problems before anyone sees them.
• Set teams free from the endless cycle of alerts that are mostly noise.
• Remain compliant without getting bogged down in audits.

If you’re not leveraging all those logs and ping tests you are clicking through manually, you are already late to the game.

Why You Need Fortinet NetOps to Attend to Your Needs

But you know what? Been burned before. But Fortinet NetOps? I’m impressed.

The Fortinet suite feels more like an experienced co-pilot than a robot seizing the controls. It only amplifies rather than replaces your expertise.

It might help to think of it this way: You used to depend on a dashboard displaying bits and bytes. Fortinet NetOps gives you:

• Single Pane of Glass Management: Monitor all – from the edge firewalls to the core switch.
• Application Aware Monitoring: It is not enough to have traffic stats, we need to know what apps are talking — and how.
• Threat Insight: Unified cybersecurity signals around identified anomalies.

And this is not a static snapshot.

The dashboard refreshes almost in real time. Alerts are firing before your people are ringing the help-desk yelling about the internet down.

On recent projects replacing zero-trust architectures for three large banks, this much visibility was a game-changer. Without it, those more nuanced internals — things like microsegmentation failures or auth issues — would’ve been blindspots.

Solving the Problem with AI and Automation

OK, I’ll level with you: I’m still not entirely sold on AI-driven NetOps. Old school, perhaps, but I’ve learned the hard way that automation without context is risky. You wouldn’t want a robot that puts out fires by spraying water everywhere if there’s a grease fire.

That is not to say that Fortinet’s automation is dumb. It takes care of its incremental adjustments, and then escalates the more difficult clashes that your human brain should be taking care of.

Here’s why this matters:

• Quicker Incident Response: Alerting prioritization so the correct tech is notified immediately.
• Reduces human error: scripts and routines replace mundane manual config checks.
• Predictive Analytics: Identifying strange patterns before they snowball.

Remember the Slammer worm? Network operators responded manually, often too slowly. Now AI-driven tools sniff out the worm’s belligerent traffic signatures almost immediately.

But — and this is important — don’t allow automation to lull you into complacency. Think of it as cruise control for your car:

• Handy on the highway
• But please keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road

At PJ Networks, we offer Fortinet NetOps with the insight of an experienced team. We have a critical approach to AI outputs, distinguishing real threats from noise.

One of our favorite use cases involved a thorny issue of intermittent latency at a client’s data center. The suspicious traffic bursts were flagged by automation. Yet it was our network engineers who uncovered the trail to a misconfigured QoS policy — the sort of thing an AI would never find.

NetOps Support Services from PJ Networks

The thing is, not every company can run and maintain an in-house NetOps team. I have seen small to medium-sized companies face outages or breaches happened as a result of half-baked monitoring.

That’s where PJ Networks comes in.

You can be confident that our NetOps-based monitoring and troubleshooting integration with this platform is provided, shaped according to your specific network topology and security posture.

Our services include:

• 24×7 Network Monitoring: Always on view of the network with notification.
• Incident Management and Response: Rapid coordination of response plans to mitigate issues.
• Routine Compliance Auditing: Maintain compliance for your network without the headache.
• Custom Automation: We assist in customizing Fortinet’s automation rules to fit your environment, not that of staff who do not know your systems.

And oh yeah — we throw in our hard-won discoveries from just decades of being out in the field. Such as when I misread a firewall log and nearly denied access to an entire branch office (no, really—stop laughing, it still hurts).

That experience informs how we coach clients to use automated tools safely.

I just returned from DefCon—so high on the hardware hacking village, and the people there to remind you that security isn’t only a software thing. It’s physical, procedural and yes, network architecture. Fortinet NetOps is one of these strong, foundational pillars. But here’s the thing: the immune system of your network is only as strong as your people and processes surrounding it.

Quick Take

• Humans dictating what’s going on is an old thing — now it’s automation.
• See the network with Fortinet NetOps and smart automation.
• If it isn’t clear already, AI apps help, rather than take the job of, experienced engineers.
• PJ Networks offers NetOp professionals to ensure that your network is safe and sound.
• Don’t get automatonish with automation. Vigilance is still key.

Conclusion

Here’s the wrap: Network monitoring and troubleshooting has changed. Most of the problems I faced in the ‘90s—manual logs, clunky tools—are largely obsolete because of programs such as Fortinet NetOps.

But in cybersecurity, there is no such thing as a hands-free ride. Automation makes things equal, but you’ll still have to be on your toes constantly.

If you’re anything like me — balancing client requests with deep dives into zero-trust upgrades and possibly nursing that third cup of coffee in the morning — you want tools that actually work and aren’t going to drown you in false alarms.

For us, that’s Fortinet NetOps. And yeah, I run my own security company, so I’m biased—but from decades of scars and successes, this is a potent combo for modern network ops.

Want to navigate the maze with more help? You don’t have to if you don’t want to, because PJ Networks is here to help you roll up your sleeves and tune up your NetOps to ensure that you’re operating at the peak of performance and security.

For at the end of the day,

The health of your network is the lifeblood of your business, don’t skimp.

Stay safe, stay curious,

Sanjay Seth