7 Questions to Ask When Evaluating Network Monitoring Solutions

Is your company evaluating network monitoring solutions for 2020? When you’re considering business technology to implement into your infrastructure, your business needs to ask itself several questions. Network monitoring is no exception, and to help you determine the right network monitoring tool for your business, we’ve listed seven essential questions that you need to ask during the evaluation process!

If you’re looking for more resources to help you evaluate network performance and security monitoring solutions, our free Network Monitoring Buyer’s Guide has you covered! It contains profiles on the top network monitoring providers in the market today, including descriptions of the tools they offer and noteworthy features of each. The guide also features 10 questions you should ask prospective vendors and yourself before buying a network monitoring solution. You can check out that guide here!

Does my business have a network performance goal?

Successful network performance isn’t a “one size fits all” deal; every business will have different goals regarding network performance. Defining a network performance goal allows your company to know how they should approach performance monitoring, which will help your business evaluate potential solutions. This goal should not be set in stone forever; it should change periodically to reflect new performance trends or address common problems.

Is your company having problems troubleshooting network issues?

It’s easy enough to realize that something’s wrong with your network. However, it can be a struggle to discover what the problem actually is. Network monitoring solutions simplify the detection and remediation of network issues by offering visual displays of devices, flows, and packets. Most solutions also give users the ability to click on a particular device and see critical performance data, like availability, packet loss, response time, error rates, and more.

Is your organization concerned about network security?

A network monitoring solution provides the invaluable benefit of added network security. If a network monitoring solution reports a sudden increase in CPU usage or if network traffic metrics take a significant deviation from the norm, this information could quickly alert IT staff of a possible malware or phishing attack. Network monitoring software can easily be situated next to any of an organization’s existing security solutions to provide a holistic view of network security.

How easy is it to deploy a network monitoring solution?

A quality network monitoring tool won’t require that users go through an arduous process to get the tool up and running. If the product you’re considering requires numerous tutorials or additional servers to be purchased, or if the features you need seem missing or non-essential, you may want to keep looking. Also, if it looks like purchasing a monitoring tool will drain too many vital resources from your organization, you should probably consider another solution.

Does a provider’s monitoring solution deliver intelligent alerts?

One of the most critical (and sometimes underappreciated) features of network monitoring solutions is alerting your company to a performance issue. At the basic level, a monitoring tool needs to deliver insights about a problem — what it is, where it’s located, when it started, etc. Other capabilities to consider include tiered alerts that sort issues by how critical they are, and timed alerts to only allow alerts to come through during the hours when someone can respond to them.

How flexible and scalable is your network monitoring solution?

Networks are not a static infrastructure; they’re rapidly changing as new devices connect to the network and businesses extend their reach. If your organization is expanding its network, a flexible and scalable network monitoring tool is essential. A scalable solution will allow your network monitoring tool to grow as your business does. With a flexible network monitoring tool, you can disable device monitoring on the network you don’t need to look at.

Does a network monitoring solution offer remote access?

This is a feature that should come included on all modern network monitoring solutions. If your office isn’t centralized in one location, a web-based network performance monitoring and management solution is absolutely essential. When your network administrators and engineers can access their network monitoring tool remotely, they’ll be able to discover, address, and potentially solve performance problems regardless of whether or not they’re in the office.

Looking for a solution to help you improve your network performance? Our Network Monitoring Buyer’s Guide contains profiles on the top network performance monitor vendors, as well as questions you should ask providers and yourself before buying.

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