Network monitoring is a reactive process that helps improve your network health and performance. It aids in keeping the network devices such as routers, switches, firewalls, servers, VMs and more under constant surveillance and gatekeeping potential threats. However, some challenges make it hard for network admins to scrutinize the network and ensure network uptime without network monitoring tools.
Network visibility throws light into components of the network, which helps the admin evaluate the network's performance. As a result of proper monitoring, network administrators gain deeper visibility of performance metrics like availability, traffic patterns, latency, bandwidth, packet loss, and more. A lack of proper visibility exposes potential vulnerabilities to threats. A solution that provides an improved network visualization experience helps organize the network in a way that is easy to comprehend. A good network monitoring tool with proper visibility easily accomplishes half its goal.
Establishing a baseline is the first step to effective network monitoring. It helps you scale your network-dependent business since understanding your basic network performance will help you comprehend the status of your network. If your network performs below the baseline, then you know your network is sinking. This helps the network admin track how the network performs on a day-to-day basis. One of the main challenges of network monitoring faced while setting up the performance baseline is determining the number of iterations you need to make because a network performance baseline isn't a standardized range. It takes a series of tests to figure out what works for your organization, and it takes patience and iterations to resolve this issue.
Keeping your network balanced between both types of monitoring is crucial. Active monitoring involves monitoring all the devices present in the environment in real-time and resolving the bottlenecks instantly. But with passive monitoring, a copy of the network architecture is created and performance bottlenecks are simulated to immunize the network to any future threats. It is essential to maintain harmony between both types because this ensures the network is always up and operational. Achieving this balance is a major challenge of network monitoring, wherein organizations struggle to choose the monitoring that best suits their network. But the answer to this is to choose a network monitor that supports both the monitoring types.
Network diagrams are another effective way to visualize the network. They provide a complete overview of every component present in the given environment. Using network diagrams as a guide, it is easy to implement any new change, like restarting or revamping the entire network. These network outlines help save time and money by preventing network stoppages or frequent downtimes. Network diagrams serve this purpose. With new devices being added every day, the network diagrams have to be updated now and then. This is an intensive effort when the network is growing exponentially. Being able to create a custom network diagram rather than following a fixed template is important. This ensures you can design comprehensive and detailed diagrams that accurately represent the structure of your organization. Try the demo version and check the compatibility of the network monitoring software before choosing the tool for your organization.
Network growth over time is one of the main factors to consider while getting the framework of a network-dependent organization ready. Planning capacity and growth is mandatory because networks are not meant to stay constant. It is not enough if the network functions in harmony just for now. To ensure continuity, planning capacity is inevitable. Creating a strategy for your network in advance is critical since you will need to change the whole infrastructure if you plan for something different later. A network monitoring tool that does effective capacity forecasting is vital.
Network downtime, blindspots, threshold violations, performance hogs, and everything else concerned with the network become the responsibility of network admins. Keeping all the performance metrics in check round-the-clock is essential. Some metrics require regular observation, while some need only be monitored periodically. The part of the network not set up for monitoring becomes a blind spot. Large blind spots, in turn, mask the purpose of monitoring and can mislead network admins to uncorrelated huge performance data and reach improper operational forecasts. A network monitor with automatic device discovery and adaptive threshold repairs a faulty network configuration.
Only a limited number of network monitors have a smart notification system. Notifications help network admins understand the status of the network by giving timely alerts on network breaches. Choosing a tool that provides custom notification profiles helps you stay communicated via various modes like SMS, emails, run programs, system commands, sound alerts, Syslog, log tickets, and more. A tool that helps you proactively eliminate performance chokes is essential.
By the time the world learned to breathe again, many people comfortably adapted to the hybrid working model. Additionally, growing organizations are expanding and scaling their operations across geographies to manage their networks better.
If your organization is spread across geographies, has a decentralized network architecture, multiple offices, remote working, and a cloud-based data repository, gaining deep visibility is important. Distributed networks are interrelated but independent. The problem with this is that the network gets distributed. Not every organization can set up an IT wing in every diversified geographic location. In such cases, centralized management should be effectively supported by network monitoring tools. Monitoring primarily becomes a challenge where lack of uniformity in networks and alternated demand makes scalability even worse. To manage a distributed network ecosystem, an effective network monitoring tool that adapts itself to the hybrid working model is essential.
ManageEngine OpManager is an enterprise-standard network monitoring solution that helps overcome common challenges by addressing every network admin's concerns. OpManager manages the active monitoring where important metrics are monitored. OpManager's powerful SNMP traps control the passive monitoring part. The inherent capacity forecasting in OpManager helps resolve the bottlenecks in poor capacity planning. OpManager uses smart adaptive thresholds to recognize any clusters that choke the network performance and alerts the network admin through elegant notifications. This helps you figure out performance issues and set intelligent baselines on network performance metrics.
OpManager's various map views, including Layer2 maps, business views, maps, topology diagrams, and 3D floor and rack views, empower the admin with a clear understanding of the organization's network topology. This provides an overall picture of your network with insights through clear visualization. Blindspot is one of the major concerns in network visibility. OpManager's automatic device discovery, along with its precise inventory page, relieves your network from blindspots. Realizing that the world's workforce has generally adapted to limitations imposed by the pandemic, OpManager continually upgrades its features to adapt to newer work models and enhance its capabilities.
