There are many critical pieces of software that you will want to arm your IT operations department with to ensure it is running as efficiently as possible and is as safe as possible. IT monitors software in general is key function that will can be acquired to keep an eye on everything from applications to your network to your company servers. With all of the software out there that focuses on IT monitors functions, you’ll want to keep in mind some important features to look for in your search. In today’s piece we look at features to consider giving you an idea of what to look for in your search.
Whether your IT monitors software will be used to monitor applications, networks or servers, a software with an automated report generation feature can prove to pay dividends for years to come. You can have these reports automatically sent to you on a monthly, weekly or even daily basis if your needs call for it. Having your company’s key performance metrics sent directly to your inbox in a timely fashion, will give you a great feel of how things are performing and a handle on how things are going. Reports such as log in attempts broken out by user, IP address or time, can help you recognize patterns that may be a potential hack or security breach on to your systems. Also, you can monitor things such as network bandwidth by having a daily report sent to a specified person on your team so he or she can ensure there are never down times, costing your business time and money. Lastly, and maybe most critical, you can have different reports go to different people on your team, dulling out the work evenly and remaining as lean as possible.
IT monitors software is great, but like any software it’s only as great as you allow it to be. Meaning, the software must be one that you and your team can pick up and learn quickly, and be intuitive enough that you will use it to its full potential. The aesthetic feel can go a long way in getting the buy in for your team to use day one. More so than just the overall aesthetics, a central dashboard where all of your key metrics are cleanly displayed is a good idea to look for in a software that your investing your IT monitors effort in.
A server monitoring feature within your IT monitors software of choice can prove to be a good feature to consider during your search. With the mountains of information contained and available on your servers, you will want to ensure it is safe and running as optimal as possible at all times. The reliability of your servers is often times the backbone of your business, and you shouldn’t overlook the safety of them. The bandwidth placed on your servers is an example of a metric you will want to monitor on a daily basis. A server monitoring feature will alert you any times bandwidth is reaching a potentially dangerous low, and give you and your team the lead time to take care of the issue before it cripples your server and networks. Thresholds can be set that when levels are nearing them, an alert is sent via SMS or email that allows you to take action immediately. Whether it be a bandwidth issue or otherwise, alerts in general are a great feature to have in any IT monitors software you are considering.
Just like you do when considering software for other purposes, you should try out the software via a free demo version before purchase. This will let you see if the software is one your team can pick up quickly, as well as see how it works with your other software.