Monitoring tools are vital to any infrastructure. They analyze and give feedback on what’s going on in your data center. If there are anomalies in traffic, a network monitoring tool will catch it and alert the administrators. When disk space is getting full on a critical server, a server monitoring tool alerts the server administrators that they need to add space. Some tools are only network tools, or only systems tools. However, these may not always provide all the analysis you need. There are additional monitoring tools that can cover everything happening within your environment.
In searching for a monitoring tool that fits the needs of your organization, it can be difficult to find one that’s the right size for your environment. Not all monitoring tools are one-size-fits-all. If you’re searching for a network monitoring tool, you don’t need to purchase one that covers server performance, storage metrics, and more. There are several things to consider when choosing a monitoring tool that fits your environment.
Run an Analysis on Your Environment
The first order of business when trying to determine which monitoring tool best fits your needs is to analyze your current environment. There are tools on the market today that help
map our your network environment and gather key information such as operating systems, IP addresses, and more. Knowing which systems are in your data center, what types of technologies are present, and what application or applications they support will help you decide which tools are the best fit.
Define Your Requirements
There may be legal requirements defining what tools need to be present in your environment. Understanding these specific requirements will likely narrow down the list of potential tools that will work for you. If you’re running a Windows environment, there are many built-in tools that perform the tasks needed in an environment. Additionally, if your organization is using these built-in tools, it may not be necessary to spend money on another tool to do the same thing.
Know Your Budget
Budgetary demands typically determine these decisions for most organizations. Analyzing your budget will help you understand which tools you can afford and will narrow the list down. Many tools do more than needed for some, so it’s not necessary to spend more on a tool that might be outside your budget.
On-prem or Cloud?
When picking a monitoring tool, it’s important to research whether you want an on-premises tool or a cloud-based one. SaaS tools are very flexible and can store the information the tool gathers in the cloud. On the other hand, having an on-premises tool keeps everything in-house and provides a more secure option for data gathered. Choosing an on-prem tool gives you the ability to see your data 24/7/365 and have complete ownership of it. With a SaaS tool, it’s likely you could lose some visibility into how things are operating on a daily basis. Picking the right hosting option should be strictly based on your requirements and comfort with the accessibility of your data.
Just Pick One Already
This isn’t meant to be harsh, but spending too time researching and looking for a tool that fits your needs may put you in a bad position. While you’re trying to choose between the
best network monitoring tools, you could be missing out on what’s actually going on inside your systems. Analyze your environment, define your requirements, know your budget, pick a hosting model, and then make your selection. By ensuring the monitoring tool solution fits the needs of your environment, it will pay dividends in the end.
