It operations are quickly becoming the backbone to every successful company. Keeping an eye on the different platforms inside of your IT department that need monitoring on various levels, will set you apart as a distinguished leader. No matter the size of your company and your IT budget, you will find that an investment in monitoring software, whether it be for your applications or distributed network monitoring capabilities, will pay for itself over and over. The aforementioned distributed network monitoring allows you and your team to dull out monitoring over several instances for various reasons. Those reasons include but are not limited to, network location, security of your key data, availability of independent and separate locations, and last but certainly not least, overall performance of your local and remote machines. Knowing what to exactly look for in a distributed network monitoring software can be time consuming and confusing, so today let us look at some of the more important features to consider.
The aesthetics of a software are often overlooked yet can prove to be critical when it comes to the software being effective and useful from day one. The distributed network monitoring software you are considering should be no different and you should search for a software that falls under this category as well. By having a software you can pick up and use day one, you can account for the constant turnover that you phase in the IT operations field, cutting down on costly training sessions for new staff. If the software is difficult to navigate, the lag in use and difficulty picking it up can prove to be dangerous as the downtime can create a risk to network safety and overall efficiency.
We now operate our IT infrastructures in a world that is increasingly mobile. Having the ability in your distributed network monitoring software to use and operate on the go, can really set the software apart from it’s competitors. Having a mobile and tablet friendly software as well will help your team work on the go, or even more efficiently on the go than software that is restricted to just a desktop version. With many IT professionals now choosing to work remotely, this might be a feature you will want to strongly consider.
Integration with the Nagios environment is a critical feature in a distributed network monitoring software that you should strongly consider. Having this will also allow you to scale to the large infrastructure you will be migrating to. Building your distributed network monitoring solution is a mute point however if you are not doing it for the correct reasons. Taking advantage of the scheme with Nagios for example to report back results of monitoring local tasks is something to consider during your setup. The configuration you establish at the initial jump is critical in making sure you set yourself and the software up for success from day one moving forward.
Plain and simple, a software is only as good the results you see and incidents you can prevent. One of the ways to limit, if not eliminate, such events is having pre-determined alerts to notify you and your team of any incoming threats. These alerts can be setup to notify you via text or email, all hours of the day or night, so that you or someone on your team can take the steps necessary to limit the damage of say an incoming security threat.
The software you ultimately go with should be vetted and tested before you make your investment. Downloading a free demo version of the software you are considering is good practice and will allow you to have all relevant information when making your choice.