The availability of network monitoring systems is frequently
the first defense line, which network managers depend on when the applications
go down. In ensuing blame game that happens among various teams in IT
organization, the network monitoring system may prove essential. As a matter of
fact, with the best system in place, blame game does not even have to occur.
With fault isolation functions and good alerting, the network monitoring tool
can enable the networking team to adopt the proactive posture toward the
service problems.
The network monitoring system market provides a variety of
the tools that range from an open source technology that’s limited in scale and
functionality to big enterprise products from the venerable enterprise IT
management providers like HP and IBM Enterprise. When looking for a network
monitoring system, procurement team should map the needs of their enterprise to
network monitoring system features of several products available currently.
Whenever you are assembling an RFP or request for proposal
from the vendors, there are some things you have to consider and these include
compatibility with your current infrastructure, integration options with IT
management tool set, scalability, usability, and ease of deployment.
Deployment Model
When knowing how the network monitoring system is deployed,
the first question you should ask is about the licensing models. The providers
differ widely in the licensing approaches. Several sell separate licenses for
various kinds of monitoring capabilities while some charge based on the number
of the devices or the number of logical interfaces or objects an enterprise
like to manage. Examine to determine how expensive the system is and how
complicated it’ll be to maintain.
Another thing you should consider is actual deployment
model. Procurement team must determine if the provider caters the best practice
guidelines for configuring its system. In addition to that, several monitoring
systems deployed as single software package, while some need separate
installations as well as separate servers for every component, which includes
polling engine, database, separate servers, analytics, and front-end console.
Providers that tailor a deployment with different components do so to enable
flexibility and scalability for their customers, yet this approach adds
complexity that every enterprise wants.
Ease of Use
Procurement team might assume that the current need for
network monitoring system will guarantee that the system it selects will be
utilized productively. This isn’t always true. The flow and layout of the
management console is one of the most essential network monitoring system
features for networking professionals to assess. An evaluation that is proof of
concept where network management personnel basically interact with the system
help ensure that it gets adopted and offers value to the enterprise.
System Scalability
Network monitoring systems differ widely when it comes to
the size of a network. While several vendors may monitor tons of devices, some
may monitor countless devices. Aside from that, while other systems may monitor
a single location, some could span the whole enterprise. It’s essential to know
the level of distribution and maximum size that the networking monitoring
system may support.
For more information please see this Network
Monitoring Software Solutions
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