In today’s highly digitalized world your IT departments safety and overall efficiency are two things that cannot be overlooked. There are many options available as far as IT monitoring software goes, but with each software being a little different, you’ll want to make sure you obtain the one that works best for your specific company and IT landscape. Let us take a look at some of the more important features to consider in your search for the best IT monitoring software to fit your needs both presently and as your company grows.
With the amount of time you will spend using your new IT monitoring software, it’s a good idea to find one that as an intuitive and easy to use main dashboard. Custom event tables, various charts and graphs tracking key metrics, and visual mapping are just a few tools that your dashboard will provide to track the key monthly numbers that are important to your business. A strong dashboard will also save you time moving back and forth from system to system, keeping most of what you need contained in one, aesthetically appealing place. Most importantly, your dashboard should be fully customizable to allow you prioritize the tools important to you and discard the ones that are not.
Another feature to consider in your IT monitoring software search is automated report generation. Whether you require updates on your IT and business metrics monthly, weekly or even daily, automated report generation can be setup to automatically send those reports on the key metrics you are interested in. Whether the reports are meant for internal or external peoples, they can be automatically generated and sent out via the IT monitoring software. One example of an automated report might be daily user logins, sent out to your internal security team. By receiving a report like this everyday, your team can look for patterns such an attempted brute force attack.
One of the most critical assets your IT department has your company’s server. With that said, it’s not a bad idea to look for an IT monitoring software with server monitoring capabilities to ensure this valuable asset stays in peak condition and maintains peak speed. Often times, hyper sensitive data is stored on your server, which means ensuring its safety and security can mean the world to your company. With that said, you’ll want to find an IT monitoring software that keep tabs on your server around the clock, probing for potential attackers.
No matter the software you choose, an IT monitoring software with customizable alerts is critical to keep you constantly aware of what is happening on your network and various areas of your IT department. Whether it be via email, SMS, or even alerts from within the software, alerts will allow you to quickly pounce on any lurking issues and resolve them before they cause wide spread damage. An example of a custom alert that you would set up is one that notifies you when your network’s bandwidth is getting near its lower threshold, threating the speed of your network and company’s overall efficiency. By being alerted to such key metrics, will allow your team to act quickly before the rest of your company even knows what’s going on.
It’s good practice, no matter what the software, to look for a trial version of the software you are considering to see if it’s one that you and your team can learn how to use quickly. Downloading a free demo will also let you see how compatible the IT monitoring software in question is with your software that you use on a daily basis.