02 September 2025
Martin Hodgson, Director Northern Europe, Paessler GmbH
As networks become increasingly complex, sprawling across physical locations, cloud environments, and operational technology (OT), many enterprises are struggling with visibility. When you can’t see your entire network, every device and every connection, you can’t protect it, in fact, 60% of breaches involve network devices that fly under IT’s radar leading to downtown, data theft, and regulatory fines.
For modern enterprises, robust network monitoring is a frontline cybersecurity defence.
At Paessler, we’ve seen how organisations of all sizes can transform their network monitoring approach, moving from reactive to proactive, from fragmented visibility to unified insight. Here are our top five lessons for enterprises looking to improve their monitoring strategy and strengthen security from the ground up.
Start with visibility: if it’s not discovered, it can’t be secured
Many cyberattacks begin not with a sophisticated exploit, but with an unmonitored or forgotten device. It could be a rogue printer, an unpatched IoT endpoint, or a developer’s sandbox server left exposed. These "blind spots" are a goldmine for threat actors. That’s why automated network discovery is so important. It’s the first step in knowing what’s connected, where, and how it behaves. Fortunately, by the end of 2025, 60% of enterprises are expected to have adopted network detection and response tools, up from less than 20% in 2022, as visibility becomes a top priority.
When you implement a discovery tool like Paessler PRTG, you can automatically scan IP ranges, identify all reachable devices using protocols like SNMP and WMI, and classify them into a live inventory. This isn’t just helpful, it’s essential. You can’t monitor or secure what you don’t know exists.
Bring operational technology into the fold
In many enterprise environments, especially in sectors like manufacturing, energy, and healthcare, operational technology has long been siloed from IT. But attackers don’t see that divide.
From a cybersecurity standpoint, IT and OT are both entry points. OT systems often rely on legacy protocols, operate in sensitive environments, and are difficult to patch or isolate without disrupting business-critical operations. This makes them uniquely vulnerable and often invisible to traditional network monitoring solutions. In manufacturing and critical infrastructure, 70% of OT security incidents in 2024 were traced back to poor network visibility and lack of integrated monitoring between IT and OT environments. That’s why enterprise-grade monitoring must include OT-aware discovery and visibility. The ability to map and monitor industrial control systems alongside corporate networks provides a fuller, more accurate picture of the organisation’s risk posture.
Use dynamic monitoring to support predictive security
Static snapshots of your infrastructure are quickly outdated, especially as new devices are added or remote workers spin up temporary connections. Continuous monitoring and scheduled discovery ensure your asset inventory stays current. Real-time monitoring of device behaviour allows organisations to establish a baseline of “normal” activity, making it easier to spot anomalies that could indicate a threat.
Companies with a unified network monitoring solution reported 51% fewer successful cyberattacks than those with siloed or manual monitoring according to IBM. For example, a sudden spike in traffic from an endpoint device or a change in how an industrial system communicates with the rest of the network can be an early sign of compromise. With integrated monitoring and discovery, enterprises can shift from reactive incident response to proactive risk mitigation.
Automate wherever possible, but stay in control
Automation is often the key to scaling monitoring across large or distributed networks. With tools like PRTG, discovery isn’t just about finding devices, it’s about instantly bringing them under watch. As soon as a new server or switch is discovered, the platform can automatically deploy appropriate monitoring sensors, track performance metrics, and apply alert thresholds. Alerts can then be configured to notify teams in real-time when something deviates from expected behaviour. This reduces the time it takes to respond to issues, but more importantly, it ensures nothing falls through the cracks simply because it wasn’t manually configured. That said, automation should never mean losing oversight, in fact, enterprises using automated asset discovery and real-time monitoring reduced their average incident response time by 45%. The best tools offer flexibility, enabling IT and security teams to customise triggers, reports, and views in ways that align with their operational goals.
Extend monitoring across your entire infrastructure, no matter where it lives
Modern enterprise networks don’t stop at the office door. Remote branches, cloud environments, hybrid applications, and mobile endpoints have become part of the fabric of daily operations. A robust monitoring strategy must reach across this entire ecosystem.
Distributed monitoring, where remote probes collect data from different network segments and report back to a central system, is a powerful way to maintain visibility without sacrificing control. Whether it's a branch office, a cloud-hosted application, or an industrial control network halfway across the world, centralised dashboards ensure that teams can track everything from one place. That consistency is vital for both troubleshooting and compliance reporting.
From asset discovery to security resilience
Ultimately, enterprise network monitoring isn’t just a technical requirement, it’s a strategic advantage. Visibility fuels better decision-making. Automated discovery reduces risk. Real-time alerts shrink response windows. And unified monitoring across IT and OT environments creates a far more resilient posture against today’s threats.
Cybersecurity frameworks like NIST and ISO 27001 emphasise the importance of knowing your assets, because risk can’t be assessed if assets aren’t accounted for. But beyond compliance, there’s a very practical benefit: organisations that actively discover, monitor, and manage their networks experience fewer breaches, recover faster from incidents, and spend less time in the dark when something goes wrong.
As we move forward, network monitoring is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s the nervous system of the modern enterprise, connecting performance, availability, and security into one continuous loop of visibility and control. Those who invest in getting it right now will be much better equipped to face whatever comes next.
