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The why and how of network availability monitoring

You might be familiar with the following scenario: You have a monitor displaying 20 open applications to oversee multiple networks or various aspects of your network infrastructure. Your inbox is steadily filling up with emails—many of which you can't seem to open and respond to in a timely manner. Outstanding tasks are accumulating, all due to an unexpected outage in a data center. If this resonates with you, it's likely that you are a network administrator or someone who works closely with them.

Network availability is essential for businesses of all sizes. When your network is down, employees can't work, customers can't reach you, and you could be losing money. That's why it's important to monitor your network availability and take steps to ensure that it's always up and running.

But how do you monitor network availability?

There are several different ways to do it, but the easiest way is to use a network monitoring tool. Tools like Site24x7 can help you track your network's uptime and performance and alert you to problems. 

How does Site24x7 help with network availability monitoring? 

Any downtime or performance degradation can have a serious impact on productivity, customer experience, and revenue. Site24x7 provides a comprehensive solution to help you stay ahead of network issues, ensuring uninterrupted operations by offering continuous monitoring, real-time alerts, and in-depth performance insights.

Continuous network device monitoring

Site24x7 helps monitor a wide range of network devices such as routers, switches, firewalls, and wireless controllers. By continuously tracking these devices, it ensures that any issues like device unavailability, failures, or slowdowns are identified immediately. Features such as NOC view helps your network remain operational 24/7, providing clear visibility into device health and availability.

Site24x7's automated device discovery feature automatically detects all devices within your network and begins monitoring their performance metrics such as CPU usage, memory consumption, and interface health. This automated process saves time and ensures no device is left unchecked. Also, Site24x7 offers Layer-2/Layer-3 maps, topology maps, and a Meraki map view to help you quickly visualize device availability.

Real-time alerts for downtime and issues

One of the most significant benefits of Site24x7’s network availability monitoring is its alerting mechanism. Whenever a device becomes unavailable or its performance falls below preset thresholds, Site24x7 sends out real-time alerts. This allows IT teams to address problems before they escalate, preventing unnecessary downtime.

Whether it’s a network device failure, an interface issue, or a sudden spike in traffic that could cause congestion, you're notified instantly via email, SMS, or other integrated channels. Alerts are fully customizable, so teams can prioritize the most critical issues based on the severity of the problem.

Comprehensive network performance metrics

Site24x7 doesn’t just monitor availability—it provides a comprehensive view of network performance. It helps network administrators understand the true health of their network by tracking essential metrics like response time, packet loss, interface traffic (in and out), bandwidth utilization, and error rates.

For instance, you can monitor interface traffic to determine which devices or interfaces are handling the most data, enabling teams to detect bottlenecks or underperforming devices that could disrupt network availability. Similarly, monitoring error rates and packet loss across your network can help you pinpoint areas where network disruptions may arise. 

Customizable dashboards and reports

Site24x7 provides powerful dashboards that allow you to visualize network performance in real time. You can customize these dashboards to focus on the specific devices, interfaces, or metrics that are critical to your network’s health. This visualization helps teams quickly assess whether any part of the network is underperforming and take necessary action.

Additionally, you can schedule reports on network health and availability, helping teams analyze historical data, track trends, and anticipate future performance challenges.

Scalability for growing networks

As networks grow and become more complex, maintaining their availability can become increasingly challenging. Whether you're managing a small network with a few devices or a large enterprise network with thousands of devices, Site24x7’s flexible monitoring system can handle it all. The tool is equipped with features like multi-credential support, SNMP monitoring, and custom thresholds, ensuring that it adapts to a wide variety of devices and network configurations.

Network availability with SNMP traps

Another key feature of Site24x7's network availability monitoring is its support for SNMP traps. Site24x7 can process SNMP traps sent by devices in your network, allowing you to receive immediate alerts when specific events occur. This is particularly useful for detecting sudden changes in network behavior, such as device malfunctions or network breaches, which can affect availability.

Best practices for monitoring network availability

  • Always monitor your network: Don't wait until there's a problem to start monitoring your network. It's important to monitor your network regularly so you can catch problems early on. Also, monitoring all your devices and networks with one tool can help minimize the number of tabs you've opened. 
  • Set up alerts: Set up alerts so you're notified if there's a problem. This way, you can take action immediately to fix the problem.
  • Keep your network documentation up to date: Make sure you have up-to-date documentation for your network, including the IP addresses of your devices and the configuration of your network devices. This will help you troubleshoot problems more quickly.
  • Have a plan in place for dealing with network outages: No matter how well you monitor your network, there's always a chance of an outage. Make sure you have a plan in place for dealing with outages so you can minimize the impact on your business.

Why do you need to monitor network availability?

Building a good user experience isn't just good for the customer; it's great for your business. By ensuring continuous availability through proactive monitoring and troubleshooting, you are establishing your organization's reputation as a solid, dependable, and responsible. Trust is something no amount of money can buy. However, you can acquire a network monitoring tool that is as reliable as your organization is to enhance efficiency and trustworthiness. Try our 30-day trial to see if our product works for your organization. 

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