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Network monitoring solutions aren't all created equal. From complex, expensive monitoring systems to lightweight shareware utilities, a wide variety of tools can be used to monitor resources on your network.

Selecting the appropriate solution for your organization can be both difficult and time consuming. A checklist of critical requirements should be used to carefully evaluate the technology and core features of prospective network monitoring software packages.

Look for the following capabilities when making a purchasing decision:

• Ease of installation, configuration and administration. Choosing a network monitoring solution that is easy to install, deploy and comprehend is of critical importance. Most companies can't afford to spend months setting up and learning to use a complex monitoring technology, nor can they afford to send network administrators on training courses every year. Thus, a streamlined, easy-to-use network monitoring package will deliver greatest ROI.
• A 100% web-based and browser independent interface. System administrators can use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption methods to log in to the monitoring software from anywhere, at any time. A fully web-based interface provides administrators with the greatest amount of flexibility, efficiency and accessibility possible.
• A solid security model. Look for a structured model that is designed to provide security to the network monitoring application itself, as well as to the critical data it stores internally. In addition, ensure that a safe network monitoring environment is provided through secure monitoring techniques and industry-standard practices.
• Automatic discovery of network resources. Locating many different resources and manually adding them to your monitoring software can be labor intensive and time consuming. Therefore, look for a solution with a high degree of automation. In particular, ensure that the monitoring product you choose is able to automatically discover applications, services and devices situated across your network and assemble these into a list of resources that can be monitored.
• Standards-based monitoring capabilities. Although you may come across a number of competing standards, only the Simple Network Monitoring Protocol (SNMP) is present on every major platform. Ensure your system monitoring product comes with full SNMP support.
• Transaction-level performance monitoring. Monitoring the availability of your resources is not enough. You'll also want to know that your critical business applications, services and devices are performing as required end-to-end. To do so, the network monitoring solution you choose must be able to perform synthetic transactions and analyze quality of service on resources such as SQL servers, mail servers, commerce solutions, web servers, dynamic web applications and SNMP-enabled infrastructure equipment.
• Ability to route alerts to email, phones and pagers. Reaching the right person as quickly as possible is imperative when a problem is detected. Therefore, your network monitoring system should be able to use a variety of communication methods to send an alert to the network administrator. Look for monitoring solutions that can alert you via email, phone, pager, beeper and other wireless device on which your company may rely.
• Detailed alert scheduling and escalation. Many networks operate around the clock. Duty schedules change, as do responsibilities. You'll want to be able to schedule alerts based on week-long calendars and specific time frames. In addition, you'll also want to ensure that if a critical problem is encountered, someone is notified to take immediate action. Sometimes that means having to escalate alerts through the ranks of network administrators until someone takes responsibility and deals with the issue.
• Real-time statistics. Real-time reporting capabilities enable you to see the status of your network at a glance. This allows you to spot trouble as it happens and deal with issues as they occur. Ensure that the network monitoring tool you select is able to display live data in a network operations center environment.
• Time-series data historical reports. Dynamic time-series data reporting capabilities allow you to view trends, identify problems and gain an understanding of overall operational efficiency. Historical reports (displaying data accumulated over a period of days, weeks, months or years) should also be customizable, publishable by email and savable to disk.

Finally, it's important to ensure you select a network monitoring solution that suits your business. Just as monitoring tools differ from one another, so do corporations and individual networks. Finding a flexible solution that can be easily adapted to meet your needs is the key to obtaining the peace of mind that comes from knowing your network is being reliably monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

For information on other features and concepts related to those discussed in this article, refer to the following ipMonitor resources:

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Last Updated: November 14, 2006 | What did you think of this topic?