15 May 2023
Martin Hodgson, regional sales manager Northern Europe, Paessler AG
Monitoring is a basic requirement for functioning IT - which in turn is a non-negotiable prerequisite for the functioning of business processes in virtually every company today. But not all monitoring is the same. Before a decision is made in favour of a monitoring system, an inventory, requirements catalogue, and market evaluation is required.
The monitoring market
The classic IT that falls under the remit of IT operations (ITOps) consists mainly of IT infrastructure (servers, applications, hardware, storage etc.), and network (switches, routers, firewalls, etc.). Even though we have narrowed down and defined the scope, there is still an amazing variety of solutions, almost all of which give the impression that they can monitor everything comprehensively and are sufficient for any company.
Applications in the enterprise environment - individual web applications within marketplaces, complex online platforms, ERP systems and more – require application performance monitoring (APM). This is in the task area of DevOps; specialists who are responsible for both the development and operations of such platforms.
Larger companies often use ten or more different monitoring systems to monitor their IT. To understand this further, we need to break down the monitoring market, starting by dividing it into three basic concepts:
1. Specialists: These solutions that are limited to specific areas (network traffic, storage systems, servers etc.) and are mainly aimed at experts who provide in-depth analysis of their area of expertise.
2. Generalists: Broad-based solutions that can monitor multiple areas (infrastructure, network, applications etc.). They’re usually managed by IT ‘all-rounders’ with a comprehensive overview of their entire area of responsibility.
3. Suites: Some vendors bundle several specialist tools into suites. The main advantage here is the fact that you can talk to one vendor and get one invoice.
Inventory is key
A reasonable inventory is critical when selecting a monitoring solution. Do we need a highly specialised solution or a broad overview? Should it be a combination of both: a solution that provides an overview of the entire IT; immediately informs the helpdesk team in the event of a fault; and provides the network team with the basis for complex root cause analyses?
In smaller IT environments, a broad-based monitoring solution is often sufficient. The ITOps team knows its devices and network. In the event of a malfunction, it usually immediately knows the cause and the resolution.
Larger companies find this more difficult because there are specialised teams managing the network, the virtual environments, or the storage systems. The environments are more complex, and the causes of faults are not easily identified. Special tools are required for the individual areas to provide correspondingly in-depth analyses. However, what is usually missing is a higher-level view of the big picture that reveals interdepartmental relationships. Therefore, a broad-based monitoring solution is also needed. Care must be taken to ensure these solutions can be integrated with the special tools, i.e., that both the generalist and the specialist have the appropriate interfaces and that instructions for integration are available.
It is important to check for each special tool and to consider whether it is truly necessary or whether the functionality provided by the generalist is insufficient. Perhaps it is possible to do without one or the other feature? The lower the complexity of the overall monitoring setup, the more cost-effective and secure it will be.
Don’t forget the basics: alerts and data collection
Receiving an e-mail in an emergency is often not enough. Different channels and escalation routines must be put in place. On the other hand, it is important to avoid too many alerts to distinguish unimportant notifications from critical alerts. Many specialised tools are not very strong in this respect. Integration with a generalist that can prioritise, communicate, and escalate an email alert from the specialised tool may be a solution. Are standard dashboards enough or do you need automatically generated SLA reports? Monitoring only works if the solution communicates the results to the right place in the right form. Otherwise, data is simply collected and stored.
Many highly qualified IT experts have surprising knowledge gaps when it comes to network monitoring; this usually comes to light when the monitoring solution used is no longer adequate or, even worse, has become so complex over the years that it is barely operable. When a company is considering a network monitoring solution, they must consider the skill sets and capabilities of their own IT team to ensure they find the right solution that fits their needs.
