Effective IT monitoring: from overview to insight

In today's digitised world, companies rely on increasingly complex and error-free IT infrastructures. Only if they are constantly available and fully functional it is possible to identify bottlenecks, coordinate business processes and guarantee customer satisfaction. A modern IT monitoring system is therefore particularly important in order to secure a competitive advantage over competitors and eliminate potential IT problems in advance. Although the awareness in German companies is increasing, most still have outdated, poorly integrated monitoring systems that have not historically grown with the IT infrastructure. We therefore explain what is really important when monitoring the IT landscape today and how these systems can be utilised.

 

What is IT monitoring and why is it so important? 

IT monitoring means the continuous monitoring of IT infrastructures, networks, servers, applications and services in order to guarantee their constant availability, IT security and performance. It is not just about recording operating data, but also about proactively reacting to errors and optimising IT resources. This is the only way to recognise and rectify potential failures, security gaps and bottlenecks before they result in economic disruptions. All applications run smoothly and efficiently, the user experience increases and the entire IT infrastructure can be improved through detailed reporting and analyses.

 

A hand points to an error on a monitor

The challenges of IT monitoring

This sounds simply on paper, but is becoming increasingly difficult to realise in practice. IT monitoring is becoming more and more of a challenge in modern companies, as in-house IT systems are no longer isolated, but are made up of on-premise, cloud and hybrid solutions. The monitoring system therefore needs to be able to track all of a company's IT resources - regardless of whether they are stored on local or external servers. Otherwise, critical systems or applications may be overlooked. 

The biggest challenge in IT monitoring therefore lies in the complexity and increasing size of IT landscapes, which can quickly lead to a loss of overview. It is not surprising that many monitoring systems are unable to aggregate data from a wide variety of (cloud) systems and convert it into comprehensible reports. Many companies therefore decide to simply use several monitoring solutions to cover their entire IT. However, this ultimately leads to a fragmentation of IT monitoring and makes administration more difficult.

 

The 3 areas of IT monitoring

  1. Foundation: In this area, the entire infrastructure is monitored, including physical and virtual devices such as servers, CPUs and virtual machines (VMs). 

  2. Software: This is where the relevant data from the infrastructure, such as CPU utilisation, system load or the number of running virtual machines, is recorded and analysed in detail. 

  3. Evaluation: The collected data is used to visualise the system performance, usually in the form of diagrams or dashboards for easy monitoring. 

IT monitoring can be agent-based or agentless. With agent-based monitoring, a programme is installed on the devices to collect performance data. With agentless monitoring, systems utilise existing communication protocols.

 

The various types of IT monitoring

Ideally, IT monitoring takes place at every level of the IT infrastructure - from the local hardware to the various networks to the remote cloud solution. 

  • IT infrastructure monitoring: This includes monitoring hardware and basic software to ensure the performance of physical systems and minimise downtime. 

  • Server and system monitoring: This involves checking the performance of servers and infrastructure components. Metrics such as uptime and system performance are recorded in order to optimise network performance. 

  • Cloud monitoring: The performance of cloud solutions is hereby analysed, with metrics such as CPU and memory consumption being monitored. However, insight into the physical infrastructure is often limited. 

  • Network monitoring: The aim is to identify network problems such as slow connections or security issues. Important metrics such as response times and errors in status queries are taken into account. 

  • Security monitoring: This focuses on the identification and prevention of security incidents by checking networks and systems for vulnerabilities. 

  • Application Performance Monitoring (APM): The focus is on monitoring application performance, including metrics on response times and performance bottlenecks.

  • Monitoring of business activities: This involves analysing key business figures such as app downloads or web sales in order to assess long-term performance.

 

Mann vor Monitoren

 

Important aspects when evaluating IT monitoring solutions

Choosing the right IT monitoring solution is crucial to ensure reliable IT monitoring of the IT infrastructure. In an increasingly complex digital landscape, where organisations rely on a mix of on-premises and cloud-based solutions, monitoring must be able to cover all components. An effective solution not only provides transparency, but also early detection of potential errors and IT security vulnerabilities. When making a decision, it is important to consider the specific needs of the company and find a solution that both fulfils current requirements and enables future growth. 

Key factors such as compatibility with existing systems, scalability, real-time monitoring and automation are just as important as user-friendliness and rapid integration. Ultimately, the aim is to choose a solution that both minimises operating costs and increases efficiency. 

Decisive criteria when choosing an IT monitoring solution

  • Compatibility: The solution should be able to monitor both on-premise and cloud systems. 

  • Scalability: The tool should offer flexible customisation options in order to keep pace with possible company growth.

  • Real-time monitoring: Important data from networks, servers, applications, etc. should be recorded and analysed in real time. 

  • Automation: Error detection and notifications should be automated.

  • Usability: A simple user interface is crucial for fast reactions. 

Cost-benefit ratio: The solution must fit into the budget and be scalable in the long term

 

Outlook for the future of IT monitoring

The future belongs to solutions that are not only reactive, but also proactive. They must be able to comprehensively record and manage all IT structures and analyse them for errors. 

Combined with integrated notification functions, critical system failures and long troubleshooting times can be stopped. However, the aim is of course not just to eliminate problems as quickly as possible, but to prevent them from occurring in the first place. And this is precisely why smart systems are constantly being developed further. This enables companies to make even more precise forecasts, receive automated responses to potential problems and organise their IT landscape efficiently and securely both now and in the future. At it-market, we are committed to helping you and would like to support you with the right hardware for precise and flexible IT monitoring. Our range includes versatile solutions such as storage systems to ensure storage capacity and data flow. From high-performance servers for monitoring CPU utilisation, memory utilisation, temperature and runtimes to reliable network devices such as switches, routers, firewalls and load balancers, you will find first-class products from leading manufacturers in our online shop. We are happy to assist you with our expertise to find the ideal solution for your individual needs.