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Network Monitoring is a process that supplies the information and data that network administrators need to determine, in real-time, the status of their network and if it's running optimally. This enables these administrators to work proactively to highlight deficiencies, enhance efficiency, and more.
By utilizing network monitoring you can attain complete visibility into their network. Administrators can obtain a clear view of all the devices that are connected to their network, see how data is moving among them, and promptly find and address issues that can undermine performance and lead to outages.
Also, with network monitoring, you can better utilize your valuable IT resources. The hardware and software tools used can reduce a large segment of manual work for your IT teams. This enables them to dedicate more time to critical projects for your organization.
As well as this, with network monitoring you can further reduce the time it takes to identify security risks. By conducting this practice, your organization can understand what ‘standard’ performance looks like. So, when unusual activity occurs, it becomes much simpler to identify the issue and know if it's a security threat.
Network-connected organizations of all sizes utilize the essential practice of network monitoring. Yet, more of these organizations are adopting a hybrid approach to working, meaning employees are spending more time at home. This makes the process of managing your network significantly more challenging. However, various networking monitoring tools and solutions ease these challenges.
Within this article, we will outline what a network monitoring solution is, as well as list some of the broad range of network monitoring tools and solutions available. To assist you in making the appropriate selection for your organization.
Contents
What is a Network Monitoring Tool?
A network monitoring tool or solution is software or hardware that has been developed to monitor and examine the performance and health of a computer network. These tools play a vital role in managing and maintaining the efficiency, security, and reliability of a network.
Network monitoring tools gather data from multiple devices and components within a network, such as routers, switches, servers, and other network devices. To supply administrators with insights into the network's behavior.
Network Monitoring Tools
As network monitoring is a vital practice for almost all organizations, choosing an appropriate network monitoring tool is vital. However, due to the extensive variety of tools available, it can be challenging to understand the benefits and drawbacks of each tool and in which scenario they’d be most useful. Therefore, we have outlined some of the best network monitoring tools currently on the market, with differing features and uses.
Logit.io
Logit.io offers an open-source network monitoring solution powered by Prometheus. Utilizing this tool enables you to aggregate and centralize all logs that are associated with your network into a platform that supplies a single source of truth. Prometheus is a leading open-source solution for monitoring and alerting network devices. Its user-friendly configuration enables effortless extraction of metrics and statistics from all your network applications. This collected data can then be effectively visualized, reported on, and monitored to enhance overall network management.
When users manage multiple Prometheus servers across different regions, it can be challenging to get a unified view of performance metrics. Additionally, maintaining separate servers per region demands more engineering resources for upkeep, upgrades, and eventual federation.
Logit.io addresses this challenge by offering a platform that allows you to remotely store time-series metrics for long-term retention, giving you a global view of all your ingested metrics. This eliminates the need to maintain, upgrade, or host your own open-source tools, simplifying the process and reducing resource demands.
If you're interested in finding out more about network monitoring from Logit.io, don't hesitate to get in contact or begin using this tool today and benefit from a 14-day free trial.
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Start Free TrialDatadog Network Monitoring
Datadog is one of the more popular network monitoring tools. The solution supplies entire visibility into all your network components that make up your on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. A key feature of the tool is the ability to use powerful visualizations of network traffic via applications, containers, availability zones, and data centers to aid in enhancing your migrations.
Obkio
Obkio is an example of a lesser-known network monitoring tool. The solution describes itself as the new generation of network performance monitoring tools designed to highlight intermittent network issues with continuous monitoring. Obkio aims to be the simplest network monitoring tool on the market, with easy setup and not sacrificing the precision of network insights. The tool is particularly versatile and can be utilized for a range of use cases. Also, whilst fairly limited, Obkio does provide a free version of the solution.
Site24x7
Site24x7’s network monitoring tool is a cloud-based network monitoring solution provided by Manage Engine. The tool aims to decrease efforts by providing network availability and performance monitoring, network traffic monitoring, and network configuration management in a single platform that aids the user in staying on staying on top of network issues at all times. Site24x7 network monitoring tool is available with a 30-day free trial, allowing you to test the product before properly incorporating it into your organization.
Zipy
Zipy provides a network log analysis tool as part of its customer experience platform. Network logs are vital to monitor as they show how data is flowing from client to server, they become critical if there are any problems at the client or server side. You can find all your network logs via DevTools to comprehend all network calls made for a given user session. Additionally, you can search easily to identify any data or errors within your network logs. Zipy is available for free, but to get the most out of the solution a paid subscription is advised.
Nagios
Nagios provides a network analyzer tool that covers NetFlow analysis, monitoring, and bandwidth utilization software. With the Nagios network analyzer, you can obtain enhanced network awareness via the tools' alerting and reporting features. To enable prompt responses when issues arise, if abnormal network activity occurs or critical thresholds are breached, admins will receive alerts to tackle these situations.
Zabbix
With Zabbix network monitoring you can gather, examine, and react to network traffic metrics while monitoring your network hardware. With the solution, you can track a range of metrics including incoming and outgoing traffic, total bandwidth usage, link status, interface speed and status, number of TCP connections, as well as others. Also, you can use alerts to quickly respond to unexpected network spikes, errors, packet loss, or ping loss. The tool also comes with over 300 templates for the most popular network hardware vendors so you can begin monitoring your network almost instantly.
SolarWinds
SolarWinds offers a multi-vendor network performance monitoring tool designed to scale and expand with your network requirements. The solution provides network availability monitoring, critical path visualization, intelligent mapping, performance analysis, enhanced alerting, and with smarter scalability for larger environments. SolarWinds network performance monitoring tool pricing starts from $1,354 and offers a fully functional 30-day free trial.
Summary Table
| Tool | Key Features | Strengths | Limitations | Ideal For | Pricing / Free Trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Logit.io | Powered by Prometheus, centralized logging, metrics visualization | Open-source, single source of truth, easy setup | Subscription cost | DevOps, IT professionals | 14-day free trial |
| Obkio | Continuous monitoring, easy setup, precision network insights | Simple setup, versatile use cases | Limited free version | Businesses needing simplicity | Free version available |
| Site24x7 | Network availability, performance monitoring, traffic monitoring | Cloud-based, comprehensive monitoring | Subscription cost | Large organizations | 30-day free trial |
| Zipy | Network log analysis, DevTools integration, error identification | Customer experience focus, easy search | Best features require subscription | Developers, support teams | Free with optional subscription |
| Nagios | NetFlow analysis, bandwidth utilization, alerting | Enhanced network awareness, detailed alerts | Older tool, can be complex | IT admins, network managers | Paid, pricing varies |
| Zabbix | Traffic metrics, hardware monitoring, 300+ templates | Extensive metrics, quick setup with templates | May require significant configuration | IT professionals, network engineers | Free |
| SolarWinds | Multi-vendor support, critical path visualization, intelligent mapping | Scalable, enhanced performance analysis | High cost | Large enterprises | Starts at $1,354, 30-day trial |
If you’re interested in finding out more about the extensive capabilities of Logit.io’s Prometheus-powered network monitoring solution, you can begin exploring the tool yourself with a 14-day free trial.
If you’ve enjoyed this article, why not read What is Network Monitoring or What is Infrastructure Monitoring next?