Modern IT environments are built on notoriously complex infrastructures made up of multiple components and interconnected systems. Organizations are powered by a diverse collection of applications, servers, networks, and databases that are designed to work together to provide the enterprise’s desired functionality. The failure of one element of the computing infrastructure can have far-reaching effects on other pieces of the environment that may appear to be unrelated. Identifying the component or system at the root of the problem can be a time-consuming and complicated task.
The cloud presents a new frontier that must be assimilated into your IT environment. Cloud and edge computing have added substantial complexity to what’s already an intricate set of relationships between the pieces of your infrastructure. Simply accessing your cloud instances implies additional network connections that need to be considered when tracking down issues. When system performance lags you need to determine if the problem is in your data center or lies with the cloud provider.
Keeping track of all the components of an IT infrastructure is beyond the capabilities of the human staff responsible for its maintenance and performance. A method needs to be employed to get a handle on the complexity and make it possible to identify problems and areas that present the potential for optimization. This method is called monitoring.
What are the Benefits of Monitoring Your Infrastructure?
Instituting a monitoring strategy for your IT infrastructure affords many benefits which can lead to increased productivity and more efficient use of your computing resources. Let’s take a look at some of the specific advantages that can be gained through monitoring.
- Increasing the speed and effectiveness of problem resolution – Monitoring provides a window through which you can observe the inner-workings of the components responsible for maintaining the computing environment. When a problem arises, a capable monitoring tool will furnish alerts and indications that allow an IT staff to address the issue before it can cause further damage.
- Reporting on performance metrics – A historical view of the performance metrics surrounding various pieces of your infrastructure provides information that can be used to improve performance or take proactive action before issues occur.
- Tracking user experience – Monitoring can furnish data related to the system’s user experience. Keeping tabs on transaction times can indicate when modifications must be made to sustain the level of performance that users expect or to make enhancements to increase their satisfaction.
- Performing capacity planning – The statistics that you can gather through monitoring give you vital data with which to make capacity planning decisions. This enables you to add capacity when it is required and before systems are negatively affected by a lack of resources.
- Managing service level agreements – Your organization is likely to be held to specific levels of performance to successfully handle customer or client requirements. Monitoring can help find aspects of your environment that can impact your ability to meet these SLAs. It is always preferable to identify these issues so they can be addressed before any SLAs are broken.
How to Monitor Your IT Environment
Deciding on the methods to monitor your environment can be challenging. Tools are available for specific components such as your network or applications. The embrace of multi-cloud implementations by businesses makes it difficult to find the right tool. Differences in computing platforms might mean having multiple monitoring solutions employed simultaneously.
Using a set of monitoring tools may enable you to obtain the information you need from your infrastructure. There are tradeoffs in gathering this data that need to be considered when implementing a monitoring strategy.
The team responsible for monitoring needs to fully understand the capabilities of the tool they are using. Trying to use more than one tool efficiently means becoming conversant with the idiosyncrasies of each solution. This can take time better spent on reacting to the data gleaned from the monitoring efforts. Being responsible for multiple monitoring platforms also introduces the prospect of human error. It makes it much easier for something important to slip through the cracks when there are many sources of information to be collated and prioritized.
More Efficient Monitoring with Uptime Infrastructure Monitor
IDERA’s Uptime Infrastructure Monitor eliminates the problem of coordinating multiple monitoring solutions to obtain a complete picture of your environment. It provides a unified dashboard from which you can monitor servers, network components, applications, and virtual machines. Uptime monitors your IT resources whether they are located on-premises, remotely or in the cloud.
There is virtually no aspect of your IT landscape that cannot be monitored with this comprehensive solution. Any network-connected device that has an IP address can be monitored. SLAs can be defined and alerts can be generated to inform the staff that failure may be imminent, enabling proactive measure to be taken. Capacity planning is enabled by the historical data and report-generating features of Uptime.
The tool installs in minutes and its simplicity of use leads to immediate value for your IT team. Its Discovery Wizard identifies many device types automatically and lets you add service monitors to each item. Native integration with ServiceNow enables automated ticket generation keyed to monitoring alerts.
The ability to see everything from a single dashboard increases the utility and usability of this monitoring solution. It will make your monitoring efforts more efficient and help you keep your computing resources healthy and happy.