Monitoring software
Monitoring your company’s network and servers is one of the most important tasks any IT security professional can be assigned. With that said, there is only so much employees can do without the help of a monitoring software. When it comes to protecting something as critical to your company’s health as its network, no shortcuts can be taken and it’s important to invest in the proper monitoring software that fit the needs of not only your company currently, but protect it and adapt to it as it grows for years to come. In this article, we will take a look at some of the most important features to consider when ultimately choosing the best software that fits your needs and IT budget.
Often overlooked, it a wise-choice to look for software that you feel you, and more importantly your team, can learn rather quickly. The overall intuitiveness of the software will allow it to be quickly learned, not only shortening the down-time of your servers being unprotected but avoiding a steep learning curve that may take time away from other tasks assigned to your IT employee workload. Maintaining efficiency is important, and by choosing an interface with a dashboard you can almost immediately feel comfortable working with, will prove to pay dividends both in the short and long term. The initial dashboard that you see when using your monitoring software, should include everything from visualization graphics, to graphs and charts that pump metrics in from real-time server data that allows for the constant monitoring of your security and bandwidth in aesthetically appealing way. By choosing a monitoring software with a good looking suite of visualization tools, it allows for the less-experienced members of your team to recognize patterns of potential issues, stopping them in their tracks and keeping your servers healthy and fast.
As previously mentioned, the ability to track the bandwidth your network is running on is an important feature that you will want to consider when shopping around for a server and network monitoring software. A good example of the usefulness for this kind of feature is some offices use the same WiFi network that they use for official business, for personal devices as well. With more and more professionals carrying two or more devices for often personal uses, networks can be come overcrowded and slow. The examples of how a slow network can affect business are bountiful, which is why it’s important to consider a monitoring software with bandwidth monitoring capabilities. Often times, the best way to make sure you never get close to exceeding your company’s bandwidth, is to find a monitoring software that offers custom alerts via email, text or through the software, that notify you anytime bandwidth is reaching an unhealthy level. Many often the ability to find sort through which devices are using the most of the bandwidth allotted, allowing you to make adjustments as necessary.
Just like any investment you are making in your company, choosing monitoring software can be a stressful and highly critiqued endeavor that you cannot afford to get wrong. While the features noted above are in our opinion some of the most important, it’s important that you find the software that fits your unique set of needs and matches your personal experience levels. That being said, our advice would be to consider a demo or trial version of the software if available to see if it is one you can easily pick up and adapt to right away. It will also allow you to see the compatibility with your operating system and the host of other tools that you use.