Most people tend to associate the Dark Ages with horrible things like war, famine, disease and Monty Python but they probably don’t associate it with network performance and availability issues. Unless that person happens to be an IT administrator.
For this group, the Dark Ages take on a whole other meaning. It’s about having difficulty addressing problems with availability and performance of their network, applications and servers. It’s about being blindsided when an issue arises, forcing them to be reactive rather than proactive. It’s about mounting user complaints with regard to slow or spotty performance. And it’s about time that changed!
If your organization depends on disparate, out-of-the box monitoring systems, you don’t have the visibility you need to get to the root cause of an issue quickly—or the ability to anticipate problems before they happen. Our latest eGuide, Escape the Dark Ages of Poor Network Performance and Low Availability, can give you some tips on how to move towards the light. In other words, how device and dependency awareness in your monitoring system can greatly improve visibility. 
Here are some proven methods to map your networks and applications, so you can develop a comprehensive network performance dashboard that will keep you ahead of problems and help you avoid wasting time chasing down false positives.
7 Key Capabilities
You know that “slow” is the new “down.” And you also know that today’s systems are increasingly complex and interconnected. Therefore, you need a performance monitoring solution that offers a single, integrated view across your network, applications and servers. When evaluating solutions, make sure it offers these seven capabilities:
- Device and dependency awareness. If you want to avoid the domino effect when a problem arises (because you didn’t account for the dependencies between devices on your network) you need a map of all those interconnections. But manually creating a network map is labor-intensive. Instead, look for a solution that has dependency awareness and layer 2/3 mapping and discovery designed into it without manual effort.
- Real-time alerts and drill-down/historical dashboards. With threshold-based real-time alerts you get early warnings of potential problems. The right dashboard will help you to find problems quickly and spot trends.
- Automatic fix of known problems. Your solution should enable you to use Active Scripts, PowerShell scripts and embedded action to restart services, reboot network devices and services, and initiate malware scans—automatically—for problems you know how to correct.
- End-to-end integrated monitoring. With a “single version of the truth” you’ll be able to simplify IT operations—and your life!
- Speed to production. Make sure you can be up and running quickly with production-ready monitoring that features dependency awareness and rapid discovery and mapping.
- Transparent device-based pricing. Port-based pricing can drive up your total cost of ownership. Lock in device-based pricing.
- An integrated system from a proven industry leader. Your small or medium business deserves enterprise capabilities from an experienced vendor.
Ready to Climb Out of the “Basic” Monitoring Pit?
To solve problems with poor network performance and low availability, you need a single, integrated solution from a well-seasoned vendor. It must go beyond “basic” monitoring to:
- Get to the root cause quickly and easily with dependency awareness
- Save time with rapid discovery and mapping
- Improve visibility with layer 2/3
- Make your users more productive
- Be production-ready within an hour
If you’re ready to shine a light on your network and performance monitoring needs, check out Escape the Dark Ages of Poor Network Performance and Low Availability.