eBooks, Guides, & Reports • 37 MIN READ

Network Monitoring Tools: What You Should Know Before You Invest

IR Team

Written by IR Team

info@ir.com

Network Monitoring Tools are like the dashboard of a car. They monitor vital real-time information such as speed, fuel level, brake, battery and engine health - all designed to keep the car functioning, and help prevent failure. Could you imagine driving a car without having this readily available and continuous flow of information at your fingertips? And with the growing sophistication and computer-driven complexity of today's vehicles, these on-board tools are more important then ever.

In the same way, network monitoring tools have become the foundation of today's highly complex IT infrastructures, providing a 'dashboard' view of every aspect of an organization's network performance.

Network monitoring solutions are a proactive strategy for IT success. They reveal real-time data and performance metrics, including device status, network traffic, and potential issues that require attention. Could you imagine running your organization without immediate access to this information?

In this comprehensive guide, we'll reveal exactly what network monitoring software does, and why it's necessary to invest in tools that can adapt, and scale with your organization as it grows and changes.


 

Our aim is to provide enough information in this guide to enable organizations to make informed decisions about the best network monitoring solution.

Comprehensive network monitoring is about proactively protecting and maintaining not only your network devices, but every component of your entire network infrastructure.

For more information on infrastructure monitoring, read our guide:

Finding The Best Network Monitoring Software

 

Network monitoring tools: What they are and why you need them

As we mentioned in the 'car dashboard' analogy, network monitoring tools are essential to make sure that the engine that is your network infrastructure and all Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) enabled devices run smoothly at all times.

Network monitoring software is designed to maintain the performance, security, and efficiency of all components of that infrastructure.

Network performance optimization

Robust network monitoring tools are built to continuously track the performance of even the largest enterprise networks 24/7.

A proactive approach removes the burden on administrators and IT teams having to identify potential problems after the fact, such as high latency, packet loss, or inefficient bandwidth utilization, before they impact operations.

Network management software proactively monitors and pinpoints areas of trouble with network devices for example. Many organizations have multiple networks, dispersed workforces, several approved and unapproved network devices, so fast troubleshooting means minimum downtime, contributing to the smooth functioning and growth of the business.

Additionally, network monitoring tools manage the health of wireless networks, servers, routers, switches, and other network services, helping to prevent unexpected outages, and ensuring that network connections and services are consistently available.

Here's a summary of how network monitoring tools enable the optimization of your network performance:

  1. Continuous network monitoring

  2. Measuring and tracking bandwidth

  3. Load balancing to improve efficiency

  4. Minimizing jitter

  5. Capacity planning for efficient traffic engineering

  6. Network architecture management

  7. Prioritizing QoS

Network monitoring tools enable network performance optimization

Network security

The ability to identify security threats is a crucial consideration. Cybersecurity threats such as malware, DDoS attacks, or data breaches are becoming more common, and more sophisticated.

Real-time network monitoring tools can help to identify unauthorized access or malicious activities, allowing IT admin to act quickly to curtail threats before they escalate.

In the case of a security breach, comprehensive network monitoring software also provides detailed logs and reports that can help IT teams quickly respond to incidents, minimizing damage and helping in post-incident analysis.

Here are more ways in which network monitoring tools can enhance organizational security and efficiency.

  1. Real time visibility for earlier threat detection

  2. Alerts and notifications to help comply with data protection and security regulations

  3. Fast execution of disaster recovery strategies

  4. Supporting compliance

Network monitoring tools enable better security

Cost efficiency

As we've previously touched on, network monitor software enables proactive issue detection, which can significantly reduce downtime - a vital metric that no enterprise organization can afford to overlook.

In fact, the costs of downtime are staggering, affecting the network operations of every industry from financial and healthcare institutions to governments, retail giants and social media platforms.

The massive cost of downtime

Forewarned is forearmed, as the adage suggests, and network monitoring tools can forewarn organizations of any anomalies, and reduce downtime by providing vital, real-time insights into network health.

Another cost-saving advantage of network monitoring software is that it helps organizations ensure that their hardware and software resources are being utilized optimally.

This prevents over-purchasing of resources, notifies and reports on under-utilization, and ensures efficient allocation of existing resources.

User experience and productivity

By monitoring and managing the performance of critical applications and services, every network monitoring service ensures that employees and customers have uninterrupted access to key resources. This is a critical factor in improving overall user experience and productivity.

By picking up on issues early and reducing troubleshooting time, IT teams can address problems before they affect users, preventing disruptions that could reduce employee productivity or impact customer satisfaction.

Network monitoring software provides a proactive approach to addressing end-user experience issues, and this can significantly reduce the burden on help desk agents, leading to prompt resolutions and more satisfied customers. It reduces ticket escalation, enabling agents to handle more tickets, in turn decreasing the need to call in skilled engineers for tech support calls.

Additionally, network monitoring solutions can highlight whether the problem originates on the end-user’s device, the network, or the application itself. This comprehensive built-in fault isolation provides quick diagnostics, and reduces overall troubleshooting time.

Network monitoring enhances user experience

Enhanced visibility and control

Network service performance and user satisfaction are crucial to business success and profitability, so an organization's ability to collect meaningful business intelligence from network data is critical. Complete visibility ensures that organizations have full control over all data flows, regardless of where they occur.

Network monitoring software provides a holistic and comprehensive view of the entire network infrastructure. This includes all devices, virtual machines, applications, and network traffic patterns.

This centralized visibility enables better management of your network, and more informed decision-making.

As more businesses adopt hybrid or cloud-based IT environments, maintaining full visibility into network traffic, performance, and security across both on-premises and cloud infrastructures becomes critical.

The best network monitoring software can automate responses to certain conditions, such as restarting particular services or rerouting traffic to mitigate network issues like performance degradation.

And in relation to remote work and hybrid working models, complete visibility helps ensure that remote connections, VPNs, and cloud services are secure and performing the way they should.

Complete network visibility ensures control

Key features to look for: All network monitoring tools are not the same

While network monitoring software is designed to manage, optimize and protect your network, not all network monitoring tools do the same thing.

While they share the common goal of monitoring and managing network performance, different tools offer varying network monitoring features, and focus areas based on the specific needs of the organization and the types of networks being monitored.

The differences can be quite significant, depending on the size, complexity, and operational goals of the network:

  • There are open-source or low-cost tools like Nagios and Zabbix that provide basic functionality for monitoring smaller networks but may lack the advanced features required for larger, more complex environments.

  • Enterprise-level solutions like IR Collaborate, SolarWinds network performance monitor, and Cisco DNA Center may come with higher licensing costs but offer far more extensive features like real-time analytics, automation, support for large-scale deployments, and dedicated technical support.

Let's break it down into what fundamental network monitoring software and a more comprehensive network monitoring tool can do across the different areas of a network.

Monitoring scope

Smaller businesses and straightforward networks may not need a network monitoring tool with every capability imaginable, but even SMBs are bound to grow and become more complex - or have plans to scale.

Basic tools can perform tasks like uptime, device status, bandwidth monitoring and CPU/memory usage.

More advanced tools have extensive monitoring, tracking and analytics capabilities. They can perform tasks like application performance monitoring, device monitoring, overall infrastructure monitoring, and network traffic analysis. They can track performance metrics, provide in-depth data analysis and have network mapping capabilities that can show a detailed view of physical, virtual and wireless networks - via customizable dashboards.

Alerting and automation

Some minimally equipped network monitoring services only send alerts based on the simplest thresholds, for example when a device goes down or when CPU usage exceeds a certain level.

More sophisticated tools offer features like automated responses and actions based on complex rules. This allows systems to automatically take actions like restarting certain systems and applications, reconfiguring devices, or rerouting traffic to prevent issues from escalating.

Level of detail in metrics

Basic metrics offered by less sophisticated tools such as device uptime and ping results are helpful for quick health checks.

However, more advanced network monitoring software offers deep analytics like root cause analysis, historical trends, predictive modeling, and capacity planning, which are essential for complex troubleshooting and optimization.

Top network monitoring tools also provide traffic analysis like Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and flow analysis which allows IT admin to determine what exactly is consuming bandwidth, and to identify potential bottlenecks or malicious activity

Scalability

More basic tools are fine to handle smaller networks. Then can monitor a limited number of devices, processes and applications with simplified reporting and alerting. But these tools might not scale well as the network grows.

Enterprise level tools are for large organizations with more complex networks, and primarily designed for scalability.

These tools offer comprehensive monitoring capabilities for thousands of devices, and multiple locations simultaneously, and high-level analytics that can handle any level of scalability with centralized control over multiple sites and regions.

User interface and ease of use

Some network monitoring software prioritizes user-friendly interfaces which are easy to use. This allows IT admin to set up basic monitoring with minimal technical expertise. If your organization doesn't have a dedicated network operations center (NOC), then this may be sufficient.

Enterprise-level network monitoring software will have more complex interfaces with customizable dashboards, detailed visualizations, and the ability to drill down into individual devices, traffic flows, and user activity. While more powerful, these tools often require managed service providers, or trained IT personnel to operate effectively.

Reporting and compliance

Some network monitoring software generates simple, built-in reports that show basic network health metrics, and this will work for some SMBs.

However, advanced reporting and compliance is crucial for large enterprise organizations to keep on top of compliance regulations. More advanced enterprise-grade tools offer customizable reports tailored to specific compliance standards, including GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and even automated scheduling for compliance audits.

Customization and integration

Basic tools will often come with pre-designed templates for metrics and alerts. They will offer minimal customization options, and this makes them easier to deploy but less flexible for more specific requirements.

Advanced tools are highly customizable, with the ability to set monitoring parameters, thresholds, dashboards, and tailored reports.

The best network monitoring software will also integrate seamlessly with other IT management tools like help desks, cloud platforms, and SIEMs, via APIs, strengthening and enhancing the broader IT infrastructure.

Basic & comprehensive network performance monitoring tools

Features of the best network monitoring tools: Making sure you get what you pay for

So we've examined the differences between basic and more advanced network monitoring tools, and established that investing in top-tier network monitoring tools can provide substantially benefits, and ease the burden on network administrators.

Every organization wants to make sure they're getting the most out of their investment. High-quality network monitoring tools do more than just track network devices or network security.

A top-tier network monitoring service with comprehensive monitoring capabilities will empower network managers to optimize performance, and enhance security, while tracking and managing all network components throughout the network infrastructure - and thereby reducing operational risks.

Let's look at the main features you need in a network monitoring tool, to help ensure that you get what you pay for, no matter what your investment.

Proactive problem detection and prevention

The most important factor to consider in a large enterprise network is minimizing downtime. As we've already mentioned, outages and downtime costs businesses dearly. It's vital that your network monitoring tool has early warning systems that can identify and alert to potential issues before they affect network performance.

Bandwidth monitoring, and tracking traffic patterns are crucial functions that can detect bottlenecks, malfunctions or failing network devices early.

Improved network performance

The best network monitoring tools provide real-time visibility into your network, allowing you to automatically monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) like bandwidth utilization, latency, packet loss, and device health, so you can optimize network resources and maintain top network performance.

Optimizing traffic flows and network usage ensures that critical business applications are always allocated the resources they need.

Comprehensive network visibility

Complete network transparency is critical, and the best network monitoring tool will provide complete visibility across all components of your network. Servers, switches, routers, virtual machines, wireless network, IoT devices, etc.

Managing all network assets from a centralized and customizable dashboard allows you to track performance across physical, virtual, and cloud services, making sure that every element of the network is functioning both individually, and simultaneously.

Fast troubleshooting and root cause analysis

When problems arise, your network monitoring tool should be able to quickly pinpoint the root cause.

Time is an important factor, so whether it’s a failing device, network congestion, or misconfiguration, you should have access to detailed diagnostics and logs so that IT teams can resolve issues faster and more accurately.

Your network monitoring tool should also have the capability to store historical performance data, enabling you to track long-term trends and recognize recurring issues to prevent future problems through predictive analysis.

Automation and reduced manual intervention

Your network monitoring tool should offer customizable automated alerts based on predetermined thresholds, such as rebooting devices or rerouting traffic to avoid congestion.

Automated monitoring can reduce the workload on IT teams by handling routine tasks, such as management of network configurations, applying patches and updates, or collecting data for compliance reports.

The less manual intervention involved in managing your network tasks, the more smoothly it will run.

Scalability and flexibility

We've mentioned scaling, and this is an important factor to consider choosing a network monitoring tool.

Enterprise organizations support thousands of connected devices and connections across multiple locations, often globally. As new technology is introduced, and businesses evolve, infrastructure monitoring becomes more complex.

Whether you plan to expand with cloud networks or new cloud services, new wireless devices, applications, or operating systems, your monitoring tool should adapt to keep up with your evolving needs.

Customizable dashboards and reporting

Being able to customize your dashboards is non-negotiable, because every organization needs to be able to focus on the metrics that matter most to them. Tailored dashboards ensure that different teams can see the information that’s specific or relevant to them.

Additionally, your network monitoring tool should be able to produce automated and scheduled customizable reports to allow IT admins to meet compliance requirements, conduct audits, and inform stakeholders about network health and performance.

Application performance monitoring (APM) and observability

Application performance monitoring is a feature of advanced network monitoring software that allows organizations to gather comprehensive analytics and reporting. This helps them understand application performance trends, and user behavior patterns.

Effective application performance monitoring tools can detect complex application performance problems and track application health.

While APM focuses on monitoring and optimizing performance, observability provides a broader, more interconnected view of business critical applications.

Both APM and observability are necessary to make sure that organizations meet Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Together, they contribute to a robust and efficient application environment, and therefore better business outcomes.

APM enhances observability, extends system availability and improves service performance, reliability, response times and user satisfaction.

Around-the-clock monitoring for global operations

If you are a large enterprise organization that operates globally or across multiple time zones, continuous 24/7 monitoring is imperative to ensure that any issues are detected immediately, regardless of when and where they happen.

You need a network monitoring tool that provides global monitoring capabilities with geo-redundancy, enabling you to track network events, and the health of multiple data centers, branch offices, or remote locations anywhere in the world.

Network monitoring tools:Getting what you pay for

How to choose the right network monitoring tool: Needs vs cost

This next section may seem somewhat contradictory to what you've just read, but it's important to carefully evaluate your organization's network needs before selecting your network monitoring software.

Striking a balance between needs and costs is crucial. Opting for the solution with the most features may not always be necessary or cost-effective, but at the same time, opting for a lower budget solution may leave critical gaps in functionality.

Taking into consideration what we've already covered in 'Key Features' and 'Getting what you pay for', here are some factors to consider.

Thoroughly assess your organization's needs

  1. Network size and complexity will influence your choices. Do you require only basic bandwidth tracking and alerting - or do you need a completely scalable solution that can handle complex environments, multiple locations and thousands of network devices?

  2. Cloud or hybrid environments. On-premises infrastructures may not need extensive cloud monitoring capabilities, but if you use cloud services or a hybrid model, you'll require deep visibility and access to comprehensive data analytics.

  3. Performance vs security. If your focus is on optimizing the performance of your network, look for tools that offer detailed traffic, bandwidth, SLA and APM monitoring. If security is a priority, you need systems more focused on intrusion and anomaly detection.

  4. Compliance & reporting. If your industry must adhere to strict regulatory compliance standards (HIPAA, GDPR, or PCI-DSS), your network monitoring tool must provide audit trails, compliance reporting and security monitoring. Some companies may only need basic performance reports.

Consider your budget

  1. Open-source or free tools. Some open-source tools are either low-cost or free, and these may suit SMBs or those with limited budgets. The problem is that these tools usually require manual configuration management. Many also lack cloud monitoring features, some security integrations and enterprise support.

  2. Subscription-based tools. Subscription based models require organizations to pay based on the number of devices, users or network traffic volume. This allows companies to control cost by scaling up or down, depending on their current needs. Subscription models may become expensive as a network grows, and many managed service providers may charge additional fees for premium features.

  3. Perpetual license tools. To avoid recurring and fluctuating subscription costs, many organizations opt for a one-time license fee, which may be more economical, although upfront costs may be higher.

Extra features, or ease of use?

Those organizations with limited access to technical resources may want to prioritize a network monitoring tool with a simple intuitive interface. These tools may have fewer advanced features, but if they're difficult to deploy or manage, it could lead to under-utilization and a waste of investment.

On the other hand, if your team is technically experienced, and has the resources to manage more feature-rich tools, they can provide much more long-term value for money.

Total cost of ownership (TCO)

When choosing network monitoring software, many organizations neglect to factor in TCO, which includes maintenance, upgrade fees, training and ongoing support. An initially low-cost tool might have hidden costs, when adding additional network devices and users, or become expensive when you need to scale or add advanced features.

Choosing the right network monitoring tools

Case Studies: How enterprise organizations have leveraged IR Collaborate network monitoring software to improve operations

We've established that monitoring isn't just about reactive troubleshooting, but a proactive strategy for IT success. Let's talk about some real-world organizations that have used network monitoring tools to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, enhance security, and improve overall network efficiency.

1. Texas Tech University Systems

Texas Tech University System

Texas Tech University System manages various communication systems and networks across the Texas Tech University campus. They have been an IR customer since 2015.

The challenge

Before adopting IR’s Collaborate solution, Texas Tech University Systems faced difficulties in proactively monitoring their unified communications ecosystem, including network devices, phones, and network routing. They wanted to identify potential issues before receiving customer complaints.

Assistant Managing Director of Communication Services, Richard Pickens and his team needed a solution that could enhance their visibility, provide proactive monitoring capabilities, and enable them to deliver a seamless communication experience to their users.

The solution

The implementation of IR Collaborate empowered Texas Tech University System to overcome these challenges in several ways, including:

Enhanced visibility. With IR Collaborate, Richard and his team gained comprehensive visibility into their core infrastructure, routing engines, and session managers.

Controlling traffic flow. IR Collaborate enables them to ensure proper functionality and detect anomalies promptly, ensuring efficient traffic flow and minimizing disruptions, as well as providing them with valuable insights into the performance of their network, and identifying potential issues with switches.

Monitoring core infrastructure. “We use IR Collaborate to monitor the core infrastructure to make sure that our routing engines are up. All of our session managers are talking the way that they should, traffic's flowing in the way that it should...We use IR Collaborate to monitor pretty much everything that we have.”

2. Snohomish County Public Utility District

Snohomish County Public Utility District

Snohomish County Public Utility District (PUD) No. 1 is the 12th largest public utility in the US and the second largest in Washington State.

The challenge

As they worked to deploy a new IVR system, staff knew it must ensure its 370,000 customers could continue easily making contact using the new platform, with quick and reliable access to customer support, account information and to report critical safety issues.

This meant IT staff needed to validate that calls into the IVR were answered within a defined time period, that callers were not greeted with an unexpected announcement or were disconnected during an otherwise successful transaction.

And with winter approaching, voice quality, reliability and throughput all took on a new criticality.

Expectations that customer service lines were likely to be inundated with reports of frozen water pipes, fallen trees, line failures or life-threatening power outages meant that the system must perform under load.

The solution

Senior Project Manager, Kristi Sterling knew that load testing was vital to identify system and capacity issues before they impacted customers.

She worked with her team and selected IR Testing Solutions after reviewing current market solutions.

She said “IR was selected through a competitive bid process. We have been pleased with the service and results. We’ve conducted several tests and each time the service has been a crucial element in helping identify issues before they impacted our customers. The testing helped us identify potential issues with SIP trunks, Quality of Service (QoS), coding and more, prior to deployment.”

Issues with session border controllers (SBC) that control signaling and media into the PUD needed resolving before any customer interactions went through the new IVR. This is because any throughput problems in the SBC are likely to result in delay and poor voice quality.

Kristi’s team used IR Testing Solutions cloud-based end-to-end, automated testing as a service to confirm that the new IVR provided the easy-to-use, low-effort and high quality customer experience that was intended.

She adds “IR’s real-time reporting was a vital part of the process. During the testing, reports helped technical teams understand the user experience, carry out troubleshooting and helped us collaborate with vendors in resolving issues.”

3. PGDS

PGDS

Prudential Global Data Services (PGDS) is the IT management arm of the Prudential Group of Companies and manages over six thousand VoIP end points.

Spread across the US and Europe, staff found that troubleshooting quality issues was becoming time-consuming, costly and labor-intensive.

The challenge

Although they could drill down into detailed logs, nothing was correlated which meant looking at data piece by piece and trying to correlate it manually.

Although the VoIP vendor had supplied a monitoring tool it could not give them the insight they needed to resolve quality issues.

PGDS knew it needed deeper insight, fast.

“It’s key for us to be able to look beyond the call itself so I know without doubt whether the issue is inside or outside our network, and establish if there are any issues with quality... We looked at various tools but nothing gave us the deep information that IR Collaborate does", Telecommunications Team Manager, Gary Foulger says.

The Solution

With IR Collaborate, staff can now assess the health of the entire VoIP environment making performance management much simpler and more efficient.

Information is presented intelligently, as Collaborate translates cryptic machine-to-machine communications from multiple UC endpoints, devices and technologies into a language that everyone can understand.

Staff can look at the screen and know which data requires attention, drilling right down to the nuts and bolts of the call network paths and identify the causes behind the issues.

Collaborate's intelligent alerts flag events, meaning that everyone knows what needs to be prioritized and clarifies what actions are needed.

With proactive insight into both existing and expanding technologies across the whole of its IP telephony environment, PGDS has gained rapid returns on investment and invaluable sight across its VoIP network.

Generic vs specialized tools

There are hundreds of different network monitoring tools on the market, and it can be confusing, so we've compiled this guide to help you make informed decisions about choosing the right one.

We've established that large enterprise organizations have complex networks, with often thousands of different devices and equipment, applications and operating systems, many of which come with their own vendor-supplied monitoring tools.

Vendor network performance monitoring tools are made specifically for their own equipment, but won't give you the insights, visibility and support you need to manage your entire network infrastructure. Third party performance management tools have a wider view on the equipment and environment they are going to monitor and manage.

For example, as an enterprise or service provider, you may be using multi-vendor equipment. It could be Cisco for your network, voice and video, Microsoft, for Windows computing and email, or Avaya for your contact center solutions. Network management software like IR Collaborate has a multi-vendor capability, whereas a vendor monitoring tool focuses on the equipment it's been designed for.

Overcoming the challenges with network management tools

Smooth operations and optimal performance within an organization is critical. We've established that the right network management tools provide the deep visibility and control you need to monitor network health, troubleshoot issues and maintain security.

But there are challenges. Let's look at some of them, and how they can be overcome.

Setup complexity and configuration

Depending on the type of monitoring tool you choose, setup, customization and configuration can be a complicated endeavor once you've established the specific needs of your organization. If not configured properly, your monitoring tools can be inaccurate, and even fail to capture critical data.

The solution

The best network monitoring tools will provide automated setup tools, pre-built templates and the vendor's expert support, no matter what level of tech expertise is available within your organization.

Alert fatigue

IT staff are often overwhelmed by a constant flood of alerts, many of which may be low-priority or false positives, which can lead to more important alerts being missed or ignored.

The solution

Ensure your network monitoring tool has customizable alert thresholds, allowing only relevant, high-priority notifications. Additionally, you should use tools with intelligent alerting capabilities that can correlate events, detect patterns, and suppress redundant or low-priority alerts.

Lack of full network visibility

Many network monitoring tools, even some high-end ones struggle to provide full visibility across increasingly complex and hybrid infrastructures. This includes missing visibility into virtualized and cloud environments, network mapping, or providing remote access.

The solution

It's imperative that you choose tools that offer visibility into every layer of the network, including on-premises, cloud, and virtual environments.

Additionally, leveraging APIs to integrate your network management tool with other IT systems, and using network discovery features will ensure that new devices, virtual machines, or cloud instances are automatically added to the monitoring scope.

Difficulty integrating with other tools and systems

Network monitoring and performance management tools are part of a larger IT ecosystem, and integration with other IT management systems such as helpdesk software, security tools, or cloud management platforms can present challenges.

The solution

Choose tools that offer extensive API support or webhooks for easy integration with other IT systems. This enables seamless communication between applications and devices, allowing for better automation and data sharing.

Opting for tools that support integration into unified dashboards or Security Information and Event Management systems (SIEMs) can help you monitor your entire infrastructure from a single interface.

Network evolution: Cloud, IoT, remote working

In a very short time, networks have evolved to incorporate more cloud infrastructure, IoT devices, and remote work environments, placing a strain on legacy network management tools.

As we covered in the section about choosing key features of your network monitoring software, unless you choose scalable tools, they may not offer support for new and emerging technologies.

The solution

Tools that provide native cloud support for public, private, and hybrid cloud environments are ideal. This ensures you have visibility into cloud traffic, instances, and services.

With the proliferation of IoT devices, selecting tools with specific IoT device management capabilities to monitor, secure, and troubleshoot these devices effectively is important.

Additionally, today's network monitoring solutions must support remote workforce monitoring, especially with features like VPN monitoring, endpoint performance tracking, and distributed network visibility.

Security and privacy issues

To fulfill its intended function, your network management tool needs to access critical data and devices, however improperly secured systems can be subject to vulnerabilities. Unauthorized access to these tools can lead to data breaches or exploitation of your network.

The solution:

Implementing role-based access control (RBAC) will restrict access, based on user roles and limit what each user can view or modify, while strong encryption protocols for all data in transit and at rest will prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information.

Additionally, regular audits and security updates will ensure that your network management tool is regularly updated with the latest security patches. Conducting security audits will identify potential vulnerabilities.

Why choose IR Collaborate as your preferred network performance monitor

In this guide we've explained why network performance monitoring software is mission critical for every enterprise organization.

IR Collaborate monitoring and performance management solutions are utilized by hundreds of the world's largest organizations to optimize their business-critical systems.

Our world-class network monitoring software provides deep insights, comprehensive monitoring and 24/7 support to keep payment hubs, unified communications ecosystems and contact centers running as they should.

One dashboard for end-to-end visibility

Broad multi-vendor coverage means you can streamline IT processes and operations with visibility across your entire environment from a single pane-of-glass.

Boosting user experience

With IR Collaborate, you can improve the performance of video conferencing and collaboration tools to optimize productivity and keep your modern workforce connected.

On-premise or cloud ready

Deploy our versatile solutions in the cloud, on premises or as a hybrid model, to suit your enterprise unified communications needs.

Fast, proactive monitoring and troubleshooting

Find and fix root-cause of problems quickly so you can maximize system performance and minimize user impact.

Summary

Network monitoring tools are essential for every organization, from SMBs to large enterprises. Every business wants to maintain the best possible performance and efficiency throughout their network infrastructure.

Today's highly sophisticated network monitoring and performance management software can help you avoid network issues and keep network services running smoothly, while helping to mitigate security threats.

With proactive management, fast troubleshooting, and the ability to analyze the right data, organizations can save costs, and have the best chance possible to achieve growth and success.

Topics: Communications Proactive troubleshooting Real-time monitoring Network Assessment Case Study eBooks, Guides & Reports Collaborate

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