With even small businesses hosting multiple computers, printers, and even handheld devices, odds are good that you have a network in place or need a network. In-house networks offer a lot of benefits. They let you share devices, streamline file sharing, boost collaboration, and back up your data.
Of course, once you have your network up and running, people complain any time it’s not operating at peak efficiency. This is where network monitoring takes the lead. If you’re not up to speed or network monitoring or aren’t clear on the importance of monitoring your networks, keep reading for our quick guide on what you need to know.
You Get Benchmarks
Do you really know how well your business network performs on a day-to-day basis? Unless it’s dramatically slower, most people don’t really notice how well a network does or doesn’t perform. Network performance monitoring helps you establish normal performance benchmarks.
Those benchmarks give you a point of comparison for if and when a problem does happen.
Spot Problems Early
Once you establish those baselines with monitoring software, like the software from www.sevone.com, it makes it much easier for network admins and the software to spot abnormal behaviors. More importantly, it lets them spot and correct those abnormalities before they evolve into a full-blown network shutdown.
Boosts Security
Good IT security takes a lot of different components acting in concert, but network monitoring plays its part.
Your monitoring can flag unusual spikes in your traffic. It can also flag when unknown devices sign on to your network. Both of those are often a prelude to a cyber threat.
Faster Response Times
For many businesses owners, you only find that your network has a problem hours after it goes down. Someone finally thinks to call you or shoot an email. This gap between the actual problem occurring and you finding out means that any potential fixes come much later than necessary.
A good networking monitoring software package will often let you set automated alerts. That lets you get on top of the problem immediately. Faster emergency network management means your network goes up sooner than later.
Saves Money
Every minute your network stays down costs you money. It might only mean lost productivity or could mean lost business. If your employees can’t access the right resources, like your inventory control system, then they can’t help customers. Avoiding or fixing network problems minimizes these losses.
Networking Monitoring and You
The more dependent your business is on its network, the more important your network monitoring becomes for long-term business health. Any time your network goes down or even slows down significantly, it impacts productivity and profitability.
Network monitoring helps you stay ahead of problems by establishing normal performance benchmarks. Deviations from those benchmarks let you know something is wrong and often help you track down the source before it takes down your network.
Looking for more tips on managing your business IT infrastructure? Check out the posts over in our Business and Technology channels.
