As IT evolves to become more complex, there is one element that continues to increase in importance: network monitoring.
As the name suggests, network monitoring involves watching for problems 24/7, but it’s also about maintaining system performance, ensuring availability, and identifying areas for improvement – all critical for the successful running of an organisation.
Network monitoring solutions have long been valued by IT professionals for their diagnostic capabilities. But with increasing cloud adoption adding a layer of complexity to how network administrators track performance, latency, and other key elements, it has become imperative for organisations to invest in an effective solution.
No matter the size of your organisation, implementing a network monitoring solution can bring a number of advantages – we’ve outlined 5 key benefits below.
1. Threat Detection
Cybercrime is one of the most widely discussed topics in the news today and a major challenge for any organisation. As hackers become smarter and more difficult to trace, detecting and mitigating any form of network threat before it escalates is critical.
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Network monitoring analyses bandwidth and traffic on specific devices, as well as analysing who, when, and where that traffic is coming from. Organisations can identify potential threats and then mitigate any form of attack before it causes disruption or downtime.
2. Performance
Maintaining network performance is critical. Many IT issues start out small but, when left unchecked, quickly escalate into more serious problems, reducing network speed, or worse, grinding it to a halt.
Not only can poor performance impact the ability of employees to carry out their daily tasks, but it can also reduce customer engagement, and may even lead to security issues.
With network monitoring, any dip in network performance is identified early, and the source of the problem located. IT professionals can recognise early warning signs and rectify potential faults before they become major issues that might cause system downtime.
3. User-Activity
Monitoring user-activity on a network can be hugely beneficial. It can help protect an organisation from suffering monetary loss, civil lawsuits, and even criminal charges in the event that a user discloses confidential information.
It can also help protect users from accessing harmful or illegal content and protect them from viewing unsuitable websites – especially beneficial within academia.
A network monitoring solution audits access to files, examines cached web files, and monitors web access at the firewall. IT professionals can use this data to block website access, strengthen security protocols, and examine the need for human firewall training to ensure a more a secure network experience for users.
4. Asset Analysis
Poor asset distribution can be a significant cost to business. When infrastructure is used ineffectively, or not at all, organisations are paying unnecessary additional costs. Conversely, when assets are overutilised, there is a greater risk of disruption, costing the organisation money to rectify the issue.
A network monitoring solution provides a comprehensive inventory of devices, allowing organisations to analyse long-term trends which can facilitate optimum use of assets. This makes it possible for organisations to repurpose and reassign underused assets and, if necessary, purchase additional infrastructure for those assets that are overused.
5. Cost-savings
The cost of network downtime is significant, lost productivity and lost business quickly mounts up, and the monetary impact can be alarming. Just as dire is the effect outages have on customer satisfaction and an organisation’s reputation. After all, as soon as a company reports a breach, it is admitting that it is not as secure as its customers thought.
With a network monitoring solution, companies can address areas of concern before they become emergencies, take action more quickly, and ultimately fix the issue before a failure occurs. By ensuring network performance, employee productivity is maintained, asset analysis is possible, and significant cost-savings can be made.
IT Strategy
Network monitoring needs to be an integral element of any organisation’s IT strategy, and, to be most effective, the security, resilience, suitability, availability, and speed of all network elements need to be monitored.
It is important to remember that a network monitoring solution is just one element of a successful IT strategy. To learn what other components make up a complete IT strategy, and to ensure your IT is strategic and proactive
Feel free to contact E-SPIN for Network Performance Monitoring and Diagnostics infrastructure and application security, infrastructure availability and performance monitoring solution.
