More important than a network’s capacity and speed is its ability to be monitored, assessed and maintained. A user may not notice iterative improvements to performance, but they’re guaranteed to notice – and reluctant to forgive – network downtime that costs them time and money.
In the lifecycle of technology, a solution depended upon 20 years ago is unlikely to be optimal today. As we innovate and introduce new technologies, so too must networks expand and evolve, both within their capacity and throughput, and the solutions we rely upon to monitor their health and efficiency. Networks underpin the systems and services upon which we depend. Within this remit, nothing can be taken for granted, and every alternative must be considered.
An Industry Slow To Change
Enterprise solutions are typically slow to innovate, and decision makers resistant to change when alternatives arrive. We come to rely on what we know, but this familiarity can also prevent us from considering better options. Optimisation requires revisiting our tried-and-tested solutions, and measuring them against more modern options.
Existing Monitoring Solutions
Most SMEs use the same monitoring software: SolarWinds, PRTG and Manage Engine. These are the solutions vendors typically refer to, for the most part, because they’re the most widely known amongst network managers. Networks thrive and fail on small digits; decimal percentages drive performance and, together, divide high-performance networks from low-performance networks, and happy users from unhappy users. When monitoring their health, the more insight, the better.
This is where existing solutions struggle. Each of those mentioned provides network management, security and KPI analytics, but are differently able to determine the root cause of problems or to manage faults. Within that list, SolarWinds is the most capable, but does not offer, for example, the data migration support that Relate Data does – essential for upgrading networks and maintaining a network’s performance history – nor the range of integrated products. SolarWinds has acquired and introduced many products over the years, but has bolted them together into a Frankenstein-esque solution (integration and cohesion are everything to a capable monitoring solution). Likewise, PRTG and Manage Engine were developed in a bygone era, and the underlying technologies are dated.
Relate Data
Software solutions must do more than match our needs. We want software that can optimise our business, and streamline our operations. For network managers, that software is Relate Data: a new, more comprehensive solution to monitoring network performance. Relate Data provides context to data. It allows network managers to monitor the complete health of their network, from the microscopic to the fundamental.
Relate Data enables network managers to better manage and maintain their network data, to identify opportunities and assess a network’s performance overtime. Network monitoring is used in conjunction with network forensics, for better root cause analysis and identification of network usage and behaviours. Using logs, comparisons of a network’s current health can be made to performance baselines to detect large-scale IT infrastructure issues that impact the user’s experience and, overtime, overrode customer confidence.
Yesterday’s best is today’s average, and tomorrow’s underperforming. Relate Data is a modern solution that keeps apace with changes to network infrastructure, new requirements and broader innovations.
For more information about Relate Data and how it can help your business, contact us today. Alternatively, see the difference Relate Data can make with a 30-day free trial.
