Managing rapidly evolving networks can be a bit devastating, considering the diversity in the network infrastructure, network growth, increasing business demands, multi-vendor environments, software-defined networking, virtualized infrastructure, distributed workforce, and dynamic services. Traditional network monitoring is not going to work today as the focus is more on user experiences. Only an AI-backed network monitoring solution that converges operations can eliminate network visibility gaps. Such professional network monitoring solutions can predict potential issues, and take preventive actions by analyzing the network behaviour in real-time, enabling a more proactive approach.
Poorly monitored networks and underperforming tools can undoubtedly lead to outages and other network issues that can directly impact business growth.
Therefore, investing in professional network monitoring solutions is the need of the hour for businesses to get real-time visibility into the entire IT network environment, maximize network performance, detect potential anomalies, and 24*7 monitor networks with ease.
Getting professional network monitoring services is easy when there is a clarity on the critical aspects of network monitoring including the difference between traditional and modern network monitoring, the future of professional network monitoring services, steps to select a reliable vendor, etc,.This blog is an attempt to get the readers familiarized with these aspects other than answering to a few questions like;
- What is network monitoring?
- How does network monitoring work?
- What is a professional network monitoring service?
- Why do businesses need professional network monitoring services?
- What are the key aspects of professional network monitoring?
- Why is it important to invest in a professional network monitoring software?
What is Network Monitoring?
Network monitoring includes both network device monitoring and network performance monitoring including mapping, discovering, and monitoring IT networks to ensure consistent flow of data, optimal availability, health, reliability, functioning, and performance of IT devices. Monitoring is among the top five network management activities according to 61% respondents of an IT trends industry research. Through network monitoring, businesses can generate topology maps and continuously monitor the business IT devices, such as routers, phones, laptops, switches, firewalls, servers, endpoints and network traffic for slow or failing components. Apart from monitoring, this also helps in alerting the system admins if any network issues are found, ensuring timely identification and resolution.
How Does Network Monitoring Work?
The network monitoring process typically involves a main server and monitoring agents deployed across the network. It includes a combination of hardware, software, protocols, network monitoring tools, etc., through which all the monitoring-related functions are carried out. First, the monitoring agents are deployed throughout all the network access points and devices. Then, these agents constantly collect required information associated with traffic and bandwidth and monitor individual devices existing in the server. Then, these monitoring agents transmit the collected insights to the main server using protocols like simple network management protocol (SNMP). The main server or network monitoring software consistently collects and analyzes the relevant traffic from all the connected agents regarding the bandwidth consumption, in/out traffic, network traffic flow, etc. Then, the analyzed data is displayed on a centralized dashboard, allowing IT administrators to monitor the network infrastructure in real-time from a single place.
What is a Professional Network Monitoring Service?
In professional network monitoring services, businesses make use of advanced and automated network monitoring and management solutions to manage, monitor, and optimize the entire business network infrastructure in real-time. These specialized solutions are designed to automate the network monitoring functions which is helpful in preventing network bottlenecks, improving performance, reducing complexity in networks, and enhancing network security. Typically, a professional network monitoring software provides 24*7 coverage, ensuring constant oversight of the entire network components, and end-to-end network visibility. Businesses struggling with server crashes, poor network connections, unhealthy bandwidth levels, excessive network costs, etc., can opt for professional network analyzer services. Not only these, but professional network monitoring services also help businesses unify their network view across on-premises, cloud, virtual, and hybrid environments.
Why do businesses need professional network monitoring services?
Network monitoring is the most crucial task of an IT infrastructure to consistently fulfill the business needs. And, as the network infrastructure becomes more intricate and complex, there is a dire need for ITOPS to monitor and manage it effectively without any challenges. The demand is further elevated due to the need for a secure, reliable and stable network.
According to the latest research on network monitoring trends, 63% respondents are “somewhat satisfied” or “neutral” with their network monitoring tools. In addition, around 81% of business professionals stated that the increase in organizational cloud applications led to an additional pressure on their network performance. Apart from these, businesses can also lose around 75% of the network monitoring visibility once the workloads are moved out from data centers to cloud environments.
Professional network monitoring solutions come with contextual diagnostic abilities that can address both single- and multi-network complexities, extend unified support, and provide intelligent analytics. They also offer deeper and more granular visibility and control, rescuing businesses from risk and downfall.
With deep observability features, the professional network monitoring tools ensure uninterrupted operations, reduced downtime, better cost efficiency, lowered employee workload, etc. Apart from these, they can also provide better security measures to timely detect and eliminate cyber threats and vulnerabilities.
What are the Key Aspects of Professional Network Monitoring?
The key aspects of professional network monitoring are as follows;
#1 Network Mapping
Network mapping is the process of visualizing, identifying and documenting all entities, including the network connections, devices, data flows, etc., within a network. Some of the leading network mapping types are as follows;
Local Network Mapping
In local network mapping, different network components within a local or on-premises environment are identified and mapped. Through local network mapping, IT teams can get a quick overview of network layout and connected components like routers, servers, switches, workstations, etc., ensuring early problem resolution during hardware failure or downtime.
Virtual Network Mapping
Virtual network mapping is the process of creating a visual representation of how different virtual machines, devices, servers, and systems are connected and interact with each other. The network map shows how these different virtual network components are connected with each other, how the data transfer takes place?, and are there any security gaps to fill.
Hybrid Network Mapping
Hybrid network mapping is the combination of both local and virtual network mapping which allows IT teams to get a comprehensive view of all network components, including local and cloud-based. Through hybrid mapping, IT teams can understand how physical and cloud components interact with each other to ensure seamless functioning of the both network infrastructure.
Through network mapping solutions, IT teams can get a big picture view of the entire IT network infrastructure, maintain end to end device visibility, see live network data, rapidly troubleshoot issues, automatically create network diagrams, and identify unknown devices and threats in real time. Modern network monitoring services and solutions can even entirely automate network mapping by automatically creating and updating network maps.
#2 Real-time Network Performance Monitoring
Real-time network performance monitoring is a highly helpful aspect of professional network monitoring which is crucial to determine network performance, problems that cause downtime, scan and discover devices, and monitor KPIs like latency, device status, bandwidth usage, server health, and packet loss. Professional network monitoring providers can constantly track and analyze the network performance of the various components in real-time, ensuring smooth operations and immediate identification of potential issues. This is a huge benefit for businesses at the present time, when around 82% companies need an hour or more to restore their network connections after a downtime.
Even irregular patterns or components that are consuming more bandwidth than allotted can also be identified through professional network monitoring.
Typical Scenario: The use of data intensive apps for tasks like meetings and data sharing require a huge amount of bandwidth for seamless functioning. When these data intensive apps consume a significant portion of the network speed, other users can experience poor network connectivity and speed. In such a scenario, leveraging professional network monitoring services could help IT teams implement bandwidth throttling or some rule-based policy to prevent extensive bandwidth usage by any utility tool.
#3 Network Discovery
Network discovery refers to the identification and mapping of different devices, systems, connections, and various other cloud-based resources in a network. In professional network monitoring, network discovery features help businesses in maintaining the complete inventory of all the connected devices without any discrepancies, downtime, and errors. Network discovery includes automated scanning, topology mapping, protocol support, automated database updates, etc., which are crucial to ensure enhanced visibility into the inventory and data security.
Typical Scenario: Whenever any business upgrades its network infrastructure by adding new servers, switches, routers, etc., the IT teams need to manually configure and map these new devices. However, with proper network discovery features in professional network monitoring, IT teams can instantly identify and add new devices to the inventory. Not only this, but network discovery features can also assign new devices with relevant categories without major risks and errors involved.
#4 Fault Management
Fault management is another major aspect of professional network monitoring services which is useful in maintaining high network connectivity and ensuring optimal network functioning. Through such capability, network downtime and fault tolerance can be hugely reduced while gaining improved network reliability, performance, and cost-effectiveness. Automated fault detection, event correlation, real-time alerts, root cause analysis, self-healing, etc., are notable fault management functions that professional network monitoring services offer.
Typical Scenario: If a switch stopped working during working hours, it takes some time for staff to repair it which can impact the working of the employees. To tackle such challenges, professional network monitoring solutions can run automated JavaScripts to instantly reroute the traffic to backup switches. Through this service interruptions and downtime can be eliminated that help IT teams in maintaining seamless network operations and functioning.
#5 Intelligent Alerts
Intelligent alerts enable IT teams to automate notifications, allowing them to stay informed of the potential issues, current status, developments, data access, and changes in the network infrastructure. Businesses can configure the required alerts and get instant updates, whenever a problem is detected. This alert automation is very helpful in intervening promptly to address the small issues quickly before they escalate. Businesses can even prioritize the alerts based on severity, in scenarios when they can’t afford to waste any time in checking irrelevant alerts. Through this, only relevant notifications and alerts are sent to users, ensuring maximum productivity and efficiency without any distractions.
#6 Security Management
In professional network monitoring, security management is required to safeguard the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of IT resources and data. Security management also lowers the cost that is wasted in securing the network assets through different security tools. In fact, according to recent cybersecurity threat landscape research, cyber attackers are exploiting vulnerabilities almost 50% faster as compared to previous years. As a result, the network security and its management functionalities have become crucial at present to quickly identify vulnerabilities, consistently monitor network health, prevent cyber attacks, meet industry standards, and protect sensitive data from unauthorized access. For optimum security management, advanced features such as intrusion detection, endpoint security, traffic analysis, automated alerts, incident response management, activity logging, etc., are very helpful.
Typical Scenario: Employees browse a huge number of websites and also need to download various files from the web. If by any chance, they download a malware infected file, it may compromise the whole infrastructure and make the data vulnerable to hackers. Professional network monitoring services having advanced security features can identify the network data spikes and isolate it from the entire system, preventing future spread.
#7 Traffic and Bandwidth Monitoring
These features are required in professional network monitoring services to get detailed visibility into bandwidth, analyze traffic usage patterns, and ensure that they have ample bandwidth even during peak hours. Not only this, but professional network monitoring solutions can also track, analyze, and control the entire data flow across the network infrastructure. Real-time monitoring, historical data analysis, traffic classification, intelligent alerts, network optimization, capacity planning, etc., are a few traffic and bandwidth monitoring aspects that IT teams can benefit from.
Typical Scenario: Having reliable traffic and bandwidth monitoring tools are also beneficial in identifying those devices that use maximum bandwidth, identifying sudden traffic spikes or abnormal network activity. This is beneficial in scenarios when employees spend more of their time on social media, video streaming, entertainment and various other websites that are irrelevant to work. Network monitoring tools help in proactively managing such sudden fluctuations.
#8 Configuration Monitoring
Configuration monitoring is another key aspect of a professional network monitoring service that helps ensure updated and correct network configurations. Through it, businesses can automatically identify the misconfigurations that could hamper the overall network efficiency and performance. It is nothing less than a boon in an era when nearly 44% of configuration changes are done manually by IT employees. Besides automatically tracking, managing, and auditing the configuration changes, these features also help IT admins with real-time change detection, version control, policy compliance checks, automated alerts, centralized dashboard, backup & restore, etc., ensuring improved network security, stability, performance, and reduced downtime.
Typical Scenario: Lack of configuration standards can cause interoperability issues that can severely reduce network performance or increase network outages when updating the configurations. With proper configuration monitoring abilities, IT teams can automate the entire configuration updating process, including audit and compliance to efficiently handle such issues.
Traditional Network Monitoring Vs AI-backed Professional Network Monitoring
AI is among the most popular technologies of modern times that have immensely transformed the network monitoring landscape. Earlier, traditional network monitoring systems came with simple tools to set rule-based alerts for monitoring the network infrastructure. They did not have sophisticated algorithms and functionalities that were crucial to manage intricate and complex network environments. In addition, traditional network monitoring systems were inherently reactive, meaning they could send alerts whenever a problem was found. Not only this, but they also lacked the proper capabilities to analyze data, configure networks, scale the network infrastructure, and integrate with existing business systems and tools.
However, this changed with the rise of AI-backed professional network monitoring. The AI-backed network monitoring software systems offer advanced features and functionalities to monitor the network traffic and environment in real-time. As per Cisco’s State of Industrial Networking Report, around 49% businesses are planning to invest in AI for improved network management and monitoring. AI-backed network monitoring solutions are reliable choices to efficiently retrieve data from various sources, rapidly scale the network architecture, analyze huge volumes of data, eliminate complexities in network management, leverage predictive analytics, and perform many more tasks efficiently.
Another major feature of Artificial Intelligence systems is their robust automation capabilities that can automate complex tasks associated with manual configurations, response creation, anomaly detection, etc. Through this automation, enhanced efficiency and performance of the entire network infrastructure can be guaranteed. Besides other benefits associated with operational efficiency, productivity, proactive maintenance, etc., AI-backed professional network monitoring also helps reduce the operational costs of businesses, particularly by eliminating the manual inspections, reducing downtime, and routinely checking the network hardware issues.
Why is it Important to Invest in a Professional Network Monitoring Software?
Modern-day professional network performance monitoring software is crucial for IT firms in efficiently managing, monitoring, and debugging their overall network infrastructure. Professional network monitoring solutions can consistently monitor the health, functionality, performance, and security of the network resources, ensuring proactive issue detection whenever there’s one. Not only monitoring, but these solutions also offer benefits like optimal security, network optimization, increased uptime, less disruptions, prevent reputational damage, and many more, making it worth the price and implementation.
Other notable benefits of investing in a professional network monitoring software include, enhanced network performance, better security, cost efficiency, improved scalability, automated network mapping and discovery, real time insights, 24*7 monitoring, regular audits, etc. Real-time predictive monitoring through professional network monitoring tools can enable adequate alerts and feedback regarding network performance before they even occur. In short, the key advantage of investing in a professional network monitoring system is to gain overall network performance.
How to Get Professional Network Monitoring Services for the Entire IT Infrastructure
For any business, it is critical to select professional network monitoring services for their IT infrastructure. Here are the top tips involved in selecting the best professional network monitoring services for the entire IT infrastructure as follows;
#1 The initial set-up:
It is one of the most pivotal steps in which analysis of the business needs and overall IT infrastructure is done to identify requirements like the size of the network, assets to be managed, goals behind implementation, etc. The analysis helps identify current challenges and problems that are rampant in the network, such as bottlenecks, bandwidth losses, downtime frequency, security bugs, etc. After the assessment, the next step is to carry out in-depth research on the top vendors that can potentially meet the business requirements.
GoodFirms is a reliable B2B ratings and reviews platform to select professional network monitoring solutions. The platform comprehensively analyzes the listed vendors based on their market presence, client reviews, core competencies, and various other factors to ensure you only select the best ones. After evaluating and shortlisting a few network analyzer software vendors, the next step is to compare the features and price of the products. Select the one that topped the comparison and evaluation and offers all the required features and capabilities to manage, monitor, optimize and secure the IT networks.
#2 Automated real-time network monitoring:
Automated real-time network monitoring capabilities to manage and gain enhanced visibility into all the network components are also crucial for improved results. Having access to proper automated real time monitoring features is pivotal to select reliable professional network monitoring services. For successful automated real-time monitoring, the professional network monitoring services should be able to efficiently perform following functions;
- Monitor different metrics like bandwidth utilization, packet loss, and latency
- Track the availability and performance of all the connected devices
- Instantly send alerts when devices behave abnormally
- Identify suspicious intrusion and access attempts
- Automatically self heal systems upon diagnosis
Through these capabilities, businesses can ensure complete automation of network monitoring with real-time visibility which are important in improving uptime, strengthening security, and proactively resolving issues.
#3 Incident Response:
Incident response capabilities must also be considered when opting for professional network monitoring services. The end goal of the incident response is to restore the system to its original state as soon as possible. So, relevant incident response features to contain the incident, mitigate damage, prevent future occurrences, analyze incidents, perform root cause analysis, and swiftly respond to network incidents should be considered in the selection criteria.
#4 Installation and configuration:
Apart from other aspects, easy installation and configuration management helps ensure swift implementation. Install and configure the tool as per your network and IT complexity Installation and configuration manuals, features documentation, training, constant support, etc., are crucial with the selected vendor to ensure risk and error free installation and configuration process. After setup, customize it as per your brand theme, set up network KPIs, view SLAs, and take a look at the policies, threshold capacities, filters, etc.
#5 Post deployment support and updates:
After investing in the right network monitoring tool, confirm with the vendor about their post deployment support, updates, and maintenance. Not only implementation, post deployment support and updates also help with performance optimization, debugging, and quick fixing other potential issues that can hamper the user experience.
Future of Professional Network Monitoring Services
Apart from leveraging AI/ML and other advancing technologies, businesses will definitely demand a Network Performance Monitoring and Diagnostics (NPMD) solution that can deliver insights into how their complete business infrastructure is performing. This will include monitoring the health of hardware components, software applications, network traffic, data, security, and other IT-related infrastructure from a single dashboard to maximize performance, reduce congestion, resolve issues instantly, and add value to users in real-time. Network performance monitoring (NPM) systems will not be restricted to corporate data centers but extend to cloud computing, remote network infrastructure, IoT, etc., further pushing its capabilities. These AI-driven network monitoring solutions will be able to provide a holistic view of the network infrastructure by predicting and preventing network issues thereby being more proactive rather than reactive.
AI-based network monitoring
The global AI in networks market size is likely to touch around USD 192.42 billion by 2034, showing tremendous growth potential. At present, AI is assisting IT administrators with task automation, advanced data analysis, anomaly detection, real-time network monitoring, predictive maintenance, bandwidth optimization, etc. The rapid and continuous advancements in AI are expected to offer enhanced capabilities for pattern recognition, security, root cause analysis, self-healing capacities, advanced threat detection, contextual awareness, etc. In the future, AI-based network monitoring solutions will definitely enhance their speed and capacity, making the overall impact more profound and diverse. Artificial intelligence will help businesses to be more proactive.
Cloud computing
With the shift of businesses towards cloud-based infrastructure, the increased use of cloud computing is another futuristic trend in professional network monitoring. The use of cloud platforms has been in trend recently to centralize business servers, reduce latency, lower bandwidth usage, and enhance data security while also consistently monitoring networks in real time. Through cloud-based systems, IT teams can efficiently handle high traffic and bandwidth demand from users, ensuring proper network scalability and optimal functioning whenever the network load is high. Not only these, cloud-based network monitoring systems can display all the relevant insights into a centralized place, allowing them to easily determine network patterns, performance, security, and other critical aspects to quickly detect and resolve network issues.
Zero-trust security
“With a zero trust mindset, organizations can protect themselves and their most critical assets even as security technologies and tools evolve.”– John Kindervag, creator of the zero trust model
Zero trust security functions on the model “Never Trust, Always Verify”, meaning no device or endpoint is safe and shouldn’t be trusted by default. In the upcoming future, the Zero Trust Security market is anticipated to reach USD 78.7 billion with a rapid CAGR of 16.6%. At present, zero trust security into professional network monitoring services is helping businesses strengthen cyber security, flag unauthorized access, continuously validate the user identity and behavior, and enforce strict access controls. Businesses are embracing Zero trust security owing to its benefits. In future, zero trust security will further help professional network monitoring services deliver enhanced protection against sophisticated cyber attacks, insider threats, and data breaches and maintain stringent compliance with regulatory requirements.
Fully automated self healing systems
Self-healing or automated systems are the next-generation tools that can automatically diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve issues without external help. By integrating self healing systems in professional network monitoring services, businesses can automatically identify and resolve network problems without involving human resources. At present, these are not yet fully automated. But in the near future, the latest technologies like AI and ML could help them become fully automated and upgraded to ensure reduced downtime, improved response times, and minimized network disruptions. Particularly, hybrid and large-scale network environments can benefit from fully automated self-healing systems, where manual monitoring and troubleshooting could be risky and inefficient.
Conclusion
A company’s IT management success, efficiency, and productivity directly depends upon its network infrastructure. Without professional network monitoring services in place, businesses will continue to struggle with challenges associated with network performance, infrastructure scalability, cyber security, enhanced visibility, and many more. Investing in reliable network monitoring solutions is the way forward in the modern world filled with network complexities. However, it is critical to select the best professional network monitoring services from those available in the market. The network monitoring software listed by GoodFirms can efficiently meet business needs with more anticipated features. IT teams can also benefit from free and open source network monitoring software to streamline their operations, automate troubleshooting, and ensure optimal network resilience.