Why Network Monitoring is Key

One of the most underrated yet tough business tasks of a Network/System administrator is network/system monitoring. Having eyes and ears across the complete IT platform has become a very demanding task.  Today, users bring their own devices to the office and workers are liberalized to work from anyplace at any time. This implies that there’s almost no border to shield.  Every human being on earth will have four devices connected to the internet by 2020.  According to Fortinet, one-third of large organisations say that there are at least 5,000 non-business devices connected to their network, according to an Infoblox (2018) report.

Even with these circumstances, the IT team is expected to monitor and be aware of every aspect of their network. It’s vital to possess a tool to help in an effective and economical network and system monitoring and management. Especially for corporations having tens, hundreds or even thousands of branches across multiple countries.

Network monitoring refers to the oversight of a computer network using specialized management software tools. These systems ensure the availability and overall performance of computers and network services. They let admins monitor access, routers, slow or failing parts, firewalls, core switches, consumer systems, and server performance — among other network aspects. This successively ensures that a business will deliver on its core functions, fully empowered by an efficient IT infrastructure.

When situations such as network failures, unacceptably slow response or other unexpected behaviour are detected, these systems send additional messages called alerts to designated locations such as a management server, an email address, or a phone number to notify system administrators. Such systems save a company a lot of money by reducing the mean time to restore any problems. It is the best possible way to ensure that your business is operating as efficiently as it should.

Network monitoring is necessary for any business, especially large scale businesses or those handling sensitive information such as financial institutions.

Important aspects to consider regarding Network Monitoring:

Security

One of the most important parts of network monitoring is keeping your information secure. Data is the most valuable commodity and it is paramount to keep access to it very secure. Globally, the cost of a data breach is 3.9 Million dollars which is a 1.5 percent increase from 2018 according to IBM’s  Cost of Data Breach report( 2019). During the April- June 2019 period, the National KE-CIRT recorded a total of 26.6 million cyber threat events, an increase from 11.25 million which was recorded between January and March 2019. Network monitoring is perhaps the most proactive way to deal with problems so that you can stay ahead of both internal and external threats.

Troubleshooting

Another great advantage of network monitoring is its troubleshooting abilities. You can save a lot of time trying to diagnose what is wrong. With network monitoring, you can quickly pinpoint which device is having problems. Your support team will be able to pick up on a problem and fix it before users are even aware of it.

Because your monitoring is constant, it can help you to track certain trends in the performance of your network. When problems occur sporadically or at peak times, they can be hard to diagnose, but a network monitor will help you better understand what is going on.

Save Time and Money

Network monitoring will save you both lots of time and lots of money. Without it, a lot of time would have to be spent investigating, which would result in more hours having to be worked. This will not only cost more money but will also lower your productivity. When you can quickly point out and fix network issues you are increasing your profits. When everything is running smoother, this gives you more time to run your business. When you understand how all your devices are being used, you can identify what needs additional disk space so you can increase the capacity quickly and effectively.

Plan for Change

With network monitoring, you can track if a device is running near its limit and needs to be changed. It gives you the ability to plan and easily make any necessary changes. All the reports that you will have to show your activity and what type of health your system is in will come in handy as great tools for your business. They will allow you to easily prove to others what is happening and show why one of your devices needs to be fixed or replaced.

Conclusion

At MTN Business Kenya we understand that network monitoring is no easy task and hence have partnered with Solarwinds to provide a comprehensive network monitoring and management Solution. Recently, analyst house Gartner, Inc. released their 2019 Magic Quadrant for Network Performance Monitoring and Diagnostics tools and it listed Solarwinds as a challenger with the leaders in the market.

Their focus on the technology professional and commitment to excellence in end-to-end hybrid IT performance management has established them as a worldwide leader in network and systems management software and MSP solutions.

As an Enterprise Business Solution provider, MTN Business Kenya realizes that the expectations for IT performance and availability are high, and the responsibility to deliver on those expectations’ rests squarely on the shoulders of today’s technology professionals. Our overall aim is to provide a comprehensive solution that will meet the needs of the client irrespective of their network environment. Contact us today

NOTE: The article is authored by Kenneth Odera, Pre-Sales Engineer at MTN Business Kenya in contribution with Mark Tindi, Marketing Specialist at MTN.