Network Security vs. Network Operations

Many organizations separate their network security and network operations departments because their missions and pressures are somewhat different. While operations strives to make network resources available in as quick and efficient a method as possible, they might not have the time, resources, or training to analyze the security implications of all situations. Security personnel should have the resources and training to evaluate the organization’s needs, without the direct pressures of maintaining a production network. Note, I’m not saying that security personnel can ignore the pressures of running an efficient and reliable production network, only that their main objective is different.

In a perfect world, balance would be struck by having a security staff with previous production experience to better understand their peers in operations, and the operations personnel would have sufficient training and management support for security to perform their jobs effectively, while complying with the security policy.