Nothing's worse than getting a call that the network is down. Too often, IT lacks the visibility they need to get ahead of performance issues, meaning you're in the dark until a user or customer calls to complain. Once an outage happens, the clock is ticking. And the longer it takes to resolve, the more it costs you: in staff time, lost productivity, and end-user satisfaction.
What is Network Monitoring?
Network monitoring is the collection and analysis of network performance data, as well as the tracking and inventory of devices that live on a network. Live network performance data is tracked and compared to historic averages or predetermined thresholds so that IT can be alerted to potential problems in near real-time.
Routers and switches, virtual servers, wireless devices, and applications of all kinds need a 24/7 network monitoring solution. Keeping tabs on all your critical network technology means you can spot and fix issues fast, before they get worse.
Watch the video below, or keep reading to discover the eight benefits of network monitoring that can lighten IT's load and make your life easier.
Benefits of Network Monitoring Software
Network monitoring is essential for maintaining a stable and efficient IT environment and choosing the right network monitoring tool is crucial for effective monitoring and management. Look for a tool that provides comprehensive insights, scalability, and efficient troubleshooting capabilities to stay ahead of outages, fix issues faster, and get immediate ROI. And you'll reap these eight benefits.
1. Stay Ahead of Outages
What causes IT outages? Human error, configuration issues, and environmental factors can all contribute. Implementing network monitoring is one of the most basic and simple ways to prevent these outages from happening in the first place.
Network monitoring gives you the visibility you need to stay one step ahead of potential issues. By showing live network performance data in an easy-to-read interface, network monitoring software helps you identify outages that could cause bottlenecks. Check out this network monitoring case study for a real example of how a medical device company uses network monitoring to maintain uptime and monitor for outages.
2. Fix Issues Faster
In a down situation, time is money. Network monitoring makes problem-solving easier and faster for time-strapped network professionals.
Whether you're dealing with a configuration error or an abnormal traffic fluctuation, network monitoring software helps you get to the bottom of issues once and for all. Live network maps lead you to the origin of problems, and status windows give you performance metrics over time.
Also, network automation tools help you go one step further. Not only can you identify problems via network monitoring, but you can fix them automatically, without having to get a person involved. Take this network monitoring example from Vasstrafik, a Swedish transportation company, that used network monitoring to stay ahead of network issues to keep their network running 24/7.
3. Gain Immediate ROI
IT teams face heavy workloads and increasingly complex projects, often without the ideal time, staff, or budget needed to complete them. The right tool can deliver immediate ROI for network monitoring. Without the need to manually dig into network performance, staff have time back in their day to work on more critical projects. Seeing the source of issues cuts down on tedious troubleshooting time.
And getting ahead of IT outages reduces the costs of outages to your organization. For a great example of the massive upside this software brings, look to Greater Media Detroit’s network monitoring use case of ensuring uninterrupted programs to improve the end user’s experience.
Ultimate Buyer’s Guide for Network Monitoring Software
Simplify the network monitoring software buying process with the information you need to find the best fit for your organization.
4. Manage Growing, Changing Networks
With technology innovation and the rise in connected devices, today's IT environments are growing in size. According to a study done by IoT Analytics, the number of IoT connected devices is projected to exceed 29 billion by 2027. Whether that's internet-enabled sensors, wireless devices, or cloud technologies, all this equipment needs to be monitored continuously for major fluctuations and suspicious activity.
Networks are also growing in complexity. And with remote work and hybrid office environments becoming the norm, things are changing even faster than usual. Whether you're dealing with cloud migrations, IPv6 transitions, or ensuring remote access, you need flexible, reliable tools to help you monitor all your IP assets and ensure smooth performance—even in the midst of change. Even educational organizations — like Decatur City Schools — are using school network management software to map and manage all connected devices on an enterprise level scale.
5. Identify Security Threats
When you don't have the budget for intrusion detection software but still want a tier 1 method to help protect against data breaches, network monitoring can help secure your business-critical data.
Easily identify security threats with network monitoring, to provide that first level of security. The biggest benefit you get is a picture of what "normal" performance looks like for your organization, making it easy to spot anything out of the ordinary—whether that's a spike in traffic levels or an unfamiliar device that's connected to your network. For instance, Audatex uses network monitoring to provide a “general health snapshot” of its networks to serve as a point of comparison. By drilling in to figure out when and on what device an event occurred, you're able to take a proactive approach to network security.
6. Justify Equipment Upgrades
Having a gut sense that a server needs upgrading isn't enough to convince most bosses. But a historic report on how that equipment has performed over the last 12 months is much more compelling.
Network monitoring tools give you that historic insight into how equipment has performed over time to justify network upgrades. Trends analysis helps you determine if your current technology can scale to meet business needs, or if you need to invest in new technology.
7. Report on SLAs
Keeping your promises with regards to network availability is a top priority to IT consultants and managed service providers. With the ability to report on performance that network monitoring provides, you can more easily meet the requirements of SLAs and ensure the satisfaction of your customers.
8. Maintain Compliance
Guidelines such as the Federal Information Security Management Act, SOX, and the PCI-DSS all require you to monitor your network activity – especially those that pass result in the exchange of sensitive data – in order to avoid fines and prevent data breaches.
Network monitoring solutions allow organizations to track and document their network infrastructure’s security controls, topology, network assets, and more. In short, network monitoring offers a clear, up-to-date picture of everything that is going on in a network currently as well as what has already taken place.
How Does Network Monitoring Work?
The first phase of network monitoring involves the discovery of devices and the mapping of their connections. Depending on your monitoring needs, you can customize network maps to show your entire distributed network, just an IP address range, or even a single subnet. After this step, you should have a clear picture of your entire network and how your devices relate to one another.
Next, you must define performance benchmarks for your network devices so that a polling engine has a point of comparison to base alerting decisions off of. At this stage, you can also define the cadence in which you prefer to monitor, or poll, your devices based on their priority level. For example, laptops may require less frequent monitoring than network infrastructure components like routers and servers.
After you’ve gained visibility into your network and you’ve added your parameters and specifications for how you would like to monitor your devices, your network will then rely on network monitoring protocols used in conjunction with a network monitoring tool to execute the actual monitoring and alerting functions.
Types of Network Monitoring Protocols
SNMP Monitoring
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an application layer protocol that is used to collect data related to network changes or statuses of network-connected devices.
ICMP Monitoring
The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is used by network devices such as routers to communicate error information and other updates to other network devices.
CDP Monitoring
The Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) is a link layer device protocol used to share information with other Cisco equipment.
LLDP Monitoring
The Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) is another Layer 2 protocol used in non-cisco related environments such as Netgear.
Three Types of Network Monitoring Solutions
Commercial Solutions
These are meant for enterprise-level network monitoring and are the most expensive option. They can handle vast networks, but they often come with a steep learning curve as well as a modular-based structure that complicates deployment.
Open Source and Freeware
These network monitoring solutions are the least expensive option but tend to be difficult to implement and can frequently contain bugs that are never resolved due to a lack of development and support.
Intermapper by Fortra
Intermapper can support small, medium, and large organizations and does not require add-ons and modules. With Intermapper, you have a granular view of your network with real-time feedback that can be integrated into other network monitoring solutions.
What to Look for in Network Monitoring Software
There's no shortage of network monitoring vendors to choose from, from open source to free network monitoring software to enterprise products with endless options to upgrade for more features. The best network monitoring and management software sets you up for long-term success by helping you understand the health of your network and identify performance bottlenecks. With a network monitoring tool, getting a snapshot of network health is easy and troubleshooting issues is more efficient. Some things to look for when trying to find network monitoring solutions include:
- Real-time network monitoring and alerting
- The ability to map your entire network and drill down into individual components
- An efficient, low-bandwidth polling engine that will not interrupt performance
- Automatic discovery of new network devices
- Runs on a variety of platforms
- Customizable, mobile dashboards that display historic as well as live results
- Quick and easy installation and configuration
See the Benefits of Network Monitoring for Yourself
Don't wait for an outage to start. Get network monitoring with a 30-day trial of Intermapper.
