Majority of enterprises use some type of network monitoring system to monitor their IT infrastructure. A superior network monitoring system will track tools for uptime, bandwidth usage and track end-to-end system performance. While this type of monitoring solution is useful when issues occur on the network it doesn’t help when there is any issue with any application. IT organizations require multiple applications to support their entire business. Having the devices in place to monitor these applications is a life saver when things go wrong. Let’s have a closer look why application monitoring systems are required and what are the available application monitoring solutions.
Why Application Monitoring Required
Application monitoring tools track those applications which are not functioning properly, even if users are able to access it. For instance, all of a sudden your users cannot access email. A monitoring system will notify you or send an alert on a dashboard that a service is not working. Being able to rapidly identify troubles with organizations applications will allow the smooth functioning of the IT system and at the same time deliver better services to the users.
End to end application monitoring will offer you a quick overview of your applications, trend reports, performance analysis and identify growth areas. All these information is necessary when it comes to planning, addressing SLA’s and fixing troubles before it cause major outages.
Solutions for Monitoring Application Performance
There is a wide variety of options to choose from, when it comes to finding an application monitoring solution. It entirely depends on your needs. There are standalone applications for monitoring single systems and there are enterprise monitoring solutions that can monitor multiple systems on your network. Open source applications and commercial applications are also available. Some features that you should look for before determining what best fits your needs are:
Performance Management: You should look for a product that offers a lot of monitoring parameters for instance, CPU, response time, memory etc.
Web Console: Ensure that you are able to access the console from a browser as it is the easiest way to manage applications.
Alerting System: Look for different type of alarms as per your requirements. Email alerting, syslog, SMB traps, text message are some of the alerting types.
Administration Roles: Look for different roles such as administrator, manager, operator, user, etc.
Reporting: Having a strong reporting system helps to determine trends and potential issues.
These are just a few basic features to look for. Majority of application monitoring solutions provide a long list of features.
Don’t skip out on monitoring your organization’s applications. A real time monitoring solution can be a life saver and maintain the smooth functioning of your IT infrastructure.