Any engineer who has worked with a variety of different Network Management Software (NMS) knows that not all network monitoring tools are created equal. In fact, when it comes to managing a large-scale or highly complex network, your choice of network monitoring tools could have a significant impact on the performance of your network and the availability of your resources. But having a powerful NMS at your disposal doesn’t automatically translate to a better-managed network – you’ll need a team of engineers who understand your network environment and how data moves around it, as well as an NMS solution that your staff is comfortable and familiar with. In this blog, we’ll take a look at how network monitoring differs when you use powerful network monitoring tools.

Every network environment is different, and no two solutions will work the same.

There are many factors to consider when it comes to managing your network – the scale and complexity of your environment will go a long way towards determining the kind of monitoring solution you need, but there are many other factors to consider. For example, the device-intensiveness of your workforce might put a significant extra load on your network and open your network to unnecessary security vulnerabilities. Choosing a suite of network monitoring tools that suits your network environment is essential, but make sure you plan with the future in mind. In just a few short years, the mobile revolution has exponentially increased the number of devices on the average network. Good network monitoring tools will alert you when the number of devices on your network are putting your resources in jeopardy, and allow you to tackle challenges of this nature long before they start impacting business-critical processes.

Powerful network monitoring tools safeguard against overspending on bandwidth.

A classic problem in network management is over-provisioning of bandwidth. Since the earliest incarnations of the internet, network managers have solved capacity problems by ‘throwing more bandwidth’ at them. Though there was never a time at which this was good network management practice, it was much easier to get away with in the ‘good old days’ since network monitoring software was a long way from the mature technology it is today. The problem, though, is that extra bandwidth very rarely solves shortcomings in network capacity. Powerful network monitoring tools give you detailed enough insight on the flow of data in your network to get down to the root of capacity concerns. You’d be surprised how much bandwidth you can free up by implementing and continually optimizing sensible Quality of Service (QoS) policies and being cognizant of any bandwidth-sucking activities that your staff are performing on your environment.

Network monitoring systems can provide unparalleled insight into your network environment.

Network monitoring tools don’t just provide visibility into bandwidth, up-time and capacity – they act as your eyes and ears in the virtual world of your network environment. Network monitoring tools can bring you the the most intricate data about the way your network operates, wherever and whenever you need it. In the right hands, your NMS can do everything from informing you when your printer is low on toner, to finding and identifying lost emails that didn’t make it to your mailbox. Many network monitoring tools allow you to forecast the impact of changes to your network configuration, which keeps you alert to potential network issues before they impact performance in any significant way. Best-in-class NMS suites also offer virtualisation features, which make it possible to prototype experimental network configurations without risking damage or disruption to your network environment.

IRIS is a provider of truly unique, scalable and lightweight network management software and network monitoring tools. To find out more about equipping yourself with the best possible network management software suite, download our free Network Manager’s Guide to a Stable and Highly Available Network.

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