Uninterrupted connectivity is non-negotiable for modern businesses. To understand why, one must only look at the negative consequences of an outage: downtime, interruptions, and lost trust can wreak havoc on your operations. You must take steps to ensure your networks run smoothly.
But before you can accomplish that, you need oversight. This is the purpose that network performance monitoring serves. In this article, we’ll explain what it is, how to do it, and how to use the data you’ve collected.
Enhance your network infrastructure
What is Network Performance Monitoring?
Network performance monitoring (NPM) is the continuous process of observing, analysing, and optimising your network operations. The purpose of this task is to identify issues that are:
- Slowing down performance
- Causing outages
- Creating security risks
By finding and addressing these problems early, you drastically reduce the likelihood of these outcomes occurring. In the long term this means you’ll experience greater operational efficiency, fewer cyber-attacks, and a better customer experience.
Key Metrics to Monitor
Before you can effectively implement network performance monitoring, you need to understand which factors indicate a potential problem. Here are the metrics you should be tracking:
- Latency: The time it takes for data to travel from one point to another. High latency results in slow performance, and can be a warning sign of congestion or routing inefficiencies.
- Packet Loss: “Packets” represent information you’re attempting to send over the internet, broken down into smaller pieces. When packets get lost, this means some data is not transferred correctly. You can experience poor performance, application errors, and even dropped calls as a result.
- Jitter: “Jitter” refers to the glitching, delays, and choppiness often noticed during poor network performance.
- Throughput/Bandwidth Utilisation: Your available bandwidth, and the amount of data successfully transferred, are crucial for identifying performance bottlenecks.
Here are some things you should consider when designing network infrastructure
How to Monitor Network Performance
1. Define Your Baselines
Establish a normal range for all key metrics. Take these measurements on a regular workday, where connectivity is relatively average. This will help you distinguish between typical fluctuations and a genuine performance issue.
2. Set Up Real-Time Alerts
Configure alerts that will trigger whenever a certain metric drops below its expected range (for instance, unusually high latency). This will allow your IT team to respond in real time, solving the problem before it can impact staff.
3. Monitor Everything
Your network isn’t just cables and routers – it’s also cloud services, VPNs (virtual private networks), and endpoints. Use a network performance monitoring tool that provides complete visibility across your entire infrastructure.
4. Automate Reporting
Implement solutions that generate automated reports on network performance. This enables better planning and allows you to demonstrate your findings to stakeholders when necessary.
5. Review and Optimise
Constantly review, adjust, and optimise your monitoring setup. Account for the additional strain that growth can place on your digital resources, along with any other changes in your IT infrastructure that could have an impact on performance.
Choosing Your Network Performance Monitoring Tools
The tool you choose will impact how successfully you’re able to identify issues. Here are some traits you should prioritise when making this important decision:
- Low Costs: Budgetary strain is one of the biggest roadblocks you’re likely to face. Fortunately, there are a variety of low-cost and even free network performance monitoring tools available.
- Clear Visibility: It goes without saying that you need to see your network performance in order to make any sense of it. Look for solutions that provide live data on traffic, bandwidth usage, latency, and device health.
- Real-Time Alerts: Proactive alerts allow you to respond faster, limiting the operational damage that an issue is capable of causing. Choose a tool that offers an instantaneous alert system.
- User-Friendly Dashboards: Look for solutions that are intuitive and easy for employees to use.
- Root Cause Analysis: The best performance monitoring platforms don’t just explain what went wrong – they explain why. Choose a solution that analyses the root cause behind network issues, so you can prevent them from occurring again.
- Scalability: Your monitoring platform should be able to grow with you. Open source network performance monitoring tools are a good option, as they’re designed to be altered.
- Security: Strong security measures are always a must-have. Any new tool introduced into your IT infrastructure can become an additional attack vector.
Integration Capabilities: It is very frustrating to find the perfect solution, only to realise it won’t work with the platforms you use. Select a tool that integrates well with your existing ecosystem.
Keep Your Network in Fighting Shape
If you don’t understand why your staff experience regular stutters and outages, then you cannot fix the problem. Network performance monitoring is crucial to maintain a healthy IT infrastructure. The right tool will allow you to detect problems, identify the cause, and find a solution before operations can be impacted.
The IT experts at Austin Technology can provide you with the knowledge needed to keep your networks safe, efficient, and productive. Discover our latest insights if you’re looking for more information about network management.
FAQs
What is Network Performance Monitoring, and Why Is it Important?
Network performance monitoring is how you identify and analyse issues that lead to slowdowns, outages, and security risks. It provides necessary oversight that allows you to address small problems before they can cause significant damage.
How Do I Choose the Right Tool?
To choose the right tool, look at these key elements: the user experience, the amount and quality of data you’re able to gather, security features, scalability, and integration capabilities.
What Are Some Good Network Performance Monitoring Tools?
Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor is one good option, as it provides high visibility even for hybrid environments. Azure Network Performance Monitor is another solid choice.
How Often Should We Review Network Performance?
Network performance should be monitored continuously, and reviewed at least once per month. The more data you are able to collect, the faster you can spot a potential problem.
