What Is Network Monitoring and Why Does It Matter?

Many businesses rely on having a constant internet connection. The internet connection needs to be kept strong and secure in order to avoid disasters such as downtime from connection loss or a cyberattack.

Networking monitoring involves monitoring the health of your networks in order to detect problems early. Immediate action can then be taken to fix the network or eliminate any threats (such as a network attack). 

How does network monitoring work?

Network monitoring helps to keep track of things like network health, bandwidth status, unreliable connections and software updates. This is all done using specialist software.

The process aims to monitor all networks involved within your business. A few networks that are likely to be monitored include:

• Device connectivity
• Local routers and switches
• Server connections
• Mobile networks
• Firewalls and VPNs

Once a problem is detected, action is taken immediately to fix the problem so that you’re not sat waiting without a connection for hours. This can reduce the costly impact of downtime. Maintaining the health of VPNs can meanwhile help to maintain a secure network. 

Intrusion detection is sometimes practiced alongside networking monitoring or may be separate entirely. This focuses more on detecting network breaches by unauthorised users and is largely a way of fending off cyberattacks. Most companies focus purely on network monitoring, however this can be a service worth looking into.

Who will monitor my networks?

You can do your own network monitoring by acquiring the right software. Of course, you’ll need to know how to interpret this software and how to react to problems. In most cases, it’s easier to hire qualified IT professionals to monitor your network. They dedicate more time to monitoring your network, possibly even creating network reports. They’ll also know how to react when there’s a problem and how to fix the issue.

You can hire in-house staff or you can outsource business IT support. The latter option is more popular as it tends to be more cost-effective. It’s worth shopping around for IT support services to find the most suitable one for you.

The benefits of network monitoring

Many of the benefits of network monitoring have already been mentioned in this post, but it’s worth summarising them in case you’re still unsure. In most cases, network monitoring can:

• Reduce downtime caused by broken connections. Network monitoring allows you to respond to network issues quickly and fix them so that your company can still conduct operations that require a connection. 
• Reduce the inconvenience caused by slow or unreliable connections. Sometimes this can be just as much of a problem as complete connection loss.
• Make sure that software updates are correctly carried out. Network monitoring checks that your devices are correctly installing software so that your devices are as secure as possible. 
• Maintain the health of VPNs and firewalls. This can help to prevent cyberattacks by helping you to maintain a level of defence against intruders.

Save you money. By reducing the risk of various network issues, you can keep your business working running smoothly and avoid costly disasters.