Database monitoring tools benefit data-driven organizations that rely on the effective use of their data resources. A comprehensive monitoring platform enables database administrators (DBAs) to understand how their systems are operating and identify issues contributing to degraded performance or availability.
The knowledge gained through a monitoring tool allows the team to tackle problems promptly. In many cases, monitoring applications let DBAs proactively take action to address issues before they seriously impact systems and users.
How Database Monitoring Benefits Organizations
Monitoring an enterprise database environment is beneficial in several ways.
- Identifying performance issues – A viable monitoring tool will enable DBAs to identify slow and resource-intensive queries that are dragging down performance. This information can then be used to tune specific queries or modify application logic to improve overall response time.
- Discovering potential resource shortages – Monitoring tools can help teams understand when resource thresholds are being stretched so they can be addressed proactively. Problems like space shortages and overworked CPUs can be handled before they impact performance or availability.
- Identifying anomalies in user access patterns – Database monitoring can alert database teams to strange or unique access patterns. This can indicate malicious attempts by internal or external actors to compromise sensitive data. For instance, a sudden increase in failed logins should be investigated as signs of a potential brute-force cyber attack.
The Need for Reliable Monitoring is Increasing
Recently there has been a substantial increase in the number of organizations deploying paid, third-party database monitoring tools to address the complexities of their database environments. This increase is due to multiple reasons that, taken together, highlight the need for reliable and in-depth information regarding an organization’s databases and related applications.
More database instances – As businesses try to deal with big data resources and new information streams, they are implementing more database instances to process them.
DBAs cannot efficiently keep up with the increase using manual processes without risking missing factors that can impact business-critical systems. A dedicated database monitoring application allows a small team of DBAs to effectively keep an eye on a large number of systems.
Multi-platform environments – The increase in the number of databases an organization deploys has been accompanied by a diversification in the platforms in use.
Many companies have implemented multi-platform environments to cope with the variety and volume of available data streams. Using the appropriate platform is necessary to extract the maximum value from the available data raw materials.
Hybrid infrastructures – Another factor informing the increased use of data monitoring software are the hybrid infrastructures that are becoming popular throughout the world of information technology (IT).
The challenges of maintaining database performance and availability across multiple on-premises, cloud, and cloud instances are beyond the capacity of teams to address with manual methods. Comprehensive monitoring tools are required to achieve the benefits possible with hybrid infrastructures.
To effectively maintain control of a modern database environment, monitoring software is a necessity.
A Monitoring Solution for SQL Server Environments
SQL Server is a very popular database solution that is widely used throughout the business world. IDERA’s SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server provides a feature-rich platform from which to monitor your complete SQL Server environment. Following are some of the outstanding features of this tool.
- SQL Diagnostic Manager supports monitoring the full SQL Server environment including physical, cloud, and virtual instances. This includes managed SQL Server databases on the Azure and Amazon cloud platforms. All SQL Server instances can be monitored from a single tool for enhanced team productivity and efficiency.
- The tool monitors your SQL Servers continuously and performs metric analysis designed to provide insight into the availability, health, and performance of the environment. Customized reports can be generated to keep everyone informed regarding the state of the monitored databases.
- Over 100 predefined alert settings can be customized for your environment to notify the appropriate personnel when issues occur. Alerts can be tailored for specific audiences and automated alert responses can be defined to address recurring problems.
- SQL Diagnostic Manager identifies locks and blocks in real-time to identify performance impacting SQL code. View statistics on index fragmentation to address this common cause of degraded performance. Teams can study historical trends to gain an understanding of why problems occurred and how they can be avoided in the future.
SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server offers teams a reliable and comprehensive monitoring solution for a SQL Server environment.