Why You Need to Centralize Your Network Performance Monitoring
Keeping an eye on your network’s performance is important. Most enterprises understand that already, and have implemented monitoring tools, such as a network performance monitor (NPM), alongside practices in order to address this need. However, when it comes to network monitoring, settling for the basics isn’t enough. You need a smart network monitoring strategy in place to ensure your business understands it’s network performance. Part of a successful monitoring plan is centralized network performance monitoring.
Centralized network monitoring allows your business to observe, manage, and influence network performance from one location. This can be done by the use of an NPM tool, which takes the entire network and makes any performance problems visible through its dashboard. That way, your company can directly see network issues as they arise without having to look for them at different locations. If your business hasn’t centralized your monitoring, we’ve explained how it benefits your company’s network performance monitoring efforts below.
Easier network performance management
While NPMs are responsible for the majority of the work involved in network monitoring, managing your network’s performance still falls mostly on your company itself. Network performance management covers a variety of tasks and concepts that help your company monitor and fix the performance of your networks. Because of the massive scale of most enterprise networks, performance management can be incredibly difficult without centralizing your management capabilities.
Using an NPM and other network management tools, you can perform the necessary network performance tasks from one location on your infrastructure. For example, if your company needs to administer performance tests to multiple areas of your network, you don’t want to waste time setting up performance probes in each location. Instead, using an NPM, you can automatically collect data from anywhere on your network and examine performance in key areas. This will all be done from one location and the NPM will show you exactly where your network is performing the best and worst.
Visualizing networks at any scale
Enterprise networks can become exceedingly complex in terms of their size and number of connected devices. Monitoring those large, intricate networks is challenging if you can’t visualize the network. However, many NPMs come equipped with network mapping features that allow you to see your network in full from its dashboard. This means you always have a centralized visualization of your networks.
Because NPMs automatically check the network for new devices, it can update the map in real time as it discovers connections. They also change the visual elements to reflect network performance – if a device’s performance levels are critical, the NPM will display it different than those that are performing well. This makes it easy for your business to see
Lack of siloing
Silos prevent your business from effectively administrating network tasks. Typically, they happen between departments of a company, but it can also happen inside your network team itself. If you haven’t centralized your network monitoring capabilities, then you won’t be able to manage network performance effectively. Because network monitoring encompasses protocols that should be followed by every member of your network team, you need to ensure that everyone on your network team is following the same procedures. Centralizing network performance monitoring helps your company establish monitoring operations that are universal in your enterprise.
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.
Check us out on Twitter for the latest in Network Monitoring news and developments!