Assess your requirement before implementing network monitoring application


Given the increased usage of networks for communication, it has become extremely important to monitor traffic so as to ensure optimum performance of business. In such a situation, use of network monitoring application is very useful as it helps explain both the kind of traffic as well as its extent, which in turn ensures enhanced performance. However, before actually implementing any network monitoring application to monitor your network, it is essential to understand the basic uses of monitoring as well as what you need to monitor in order to increase profits of business.

The basic advantage of any network monitoring application is that it helps monitor, maintain, support and stabilize your networks almost without any or with minimum human interface.

This proactive monitoring allows you to understand and define problem areas and resolve it before it increases in magnitude. Disk utilization is one major area that a network monitoring application monitors, which includes monitoring availability of device, disk and memory utilization, monitoring the response time, status of critical services and antivirus and also notifying in case of any problems. Additionally, given the fact that such applications have remote access to all workstations, it makes it easy to understand the traffic and diagnose any problems.

Performance of a system is just one small aspect for a network monitoring application as it also involves other aspects like bandwidth usage, availability and performance testing. Similarly, server efficiency, bandwidth reduction, virtual security and network latency are important issues while ensuring optimum performance of networks. A good network monitoring application will help in all these areas and more, if required. Alternatively, you can choose the areas you want to concentrate on, depending on the type of network you use, to ensure the best possible solution.

Before actually choosing a network monitoring application, you should understand that there are four types of solutions widely used today, which include, solutions based on various agents like sniffer, synthetic agent and desktop agents and also the fourth that does not use any agent. Each type of solution caters to a specific need and identifies with different aspects of network monitoring. Sniffer based solutions log onto the network and merely watch the network traffic. This type of network monitoring application is useful when you want to create minimum roadblocks and are happy with monitoring traffic idly.

Additionally, it is important to understand what kind of data you are seeking from such monitoring tools, whether you want real time data or historic data. Moreover, some tools have additional benefits embedded in them, which though very useful may not be actually used in your scenario. It is important to understand all those features and their exact functions so that you are able to choose one that will not unnecessarily increase your financial burden. Further, any tool that you choose should be user-friendly and provide you alerts and notifications that can be easily understood and dealt with, so as to ensure the continuity of performance. Lastly, size of your network also plays a very important role in identifying the best network monitoring application for your company, as it should be such as to encompass and monitor all aspects and yet fit your budget.