NMSaaS Blog

Introduction

Network engineers and network managers tend to think of application performance only in terms of speed: their goal is to make the application as fast as possible or, at the very least, as fast as it needs to be. Stability and predictability, however, are two additional factors that contribute to performance. A stable application results in a consistent user experience, meaning that it performs equally well during peak hours and off-peak hours. As its user base grows, even if suddenly (e.g., after a viral marketing campaign), the compute demands will increase. Therefore, a high-performance application should also be designed with predictability in mind. In other words, it should be known in advance how an increased load under various conditions will affect the infrastructure so that the appropriate actions can be taken to avoid performance degradation.

While everyone is still reacting to the wide-spread ransomware attacks that happened earlier this year, it's become clear that hackers are becoming bolder and far more motivated to shake money out of businesses in any way they can. Malware is getting nastier and the most prominent hacks have graduated from annoying and destructive pranks to outright theft. Though we've only recently found out about the epidemic, in the last year there has been an astounding wave of cyber attacks targeting hotels and, specifically, their payment processing information.

A modern business is made up of dozens, often hundreds, of individual devices, computers, appliances used by the company and employees. Some host websites and resources, others are personal endpoints, and some are resources shared by entire departments or the business as a whole. All of these physical technological assets come together to form your businesses' overall network made up of connected devices. In fact, everything that your central router provides with a local IP address, not matter how small or seemingly insignificant, technically counts as a piece of your network, can use up bandwidth and resources, and can create vulnerabilities in your system if not properly monitored and secured.

Over the last several decades, the number of technical assets a modern company needs has multiplied several times over. Back in the 80s, if you even had a computer, all you needed was a phone, a modem, a desktop, and an ancient EMS or spreadsheet program to track your customer information and finances. These days, you need a website, a mobile app, a social media presence, a company network with dozens of individual computers (depending on your company size) and hundreds of optional tech like networked printers or security cameras. Honestly, with all these devices, applications, online platforms, and services to keep track of, it's no wonder hackers are having a field day. Even the most talented and capable sysadmin in the world can't personally keep track of every single technical asset in a company.

Any computer system will fail, given enough time. Hardware problems, such as a power failure or component defect, can bring it down. The software might have a bug that rare circumstances trigger, or an external attack exploiting a flaw might stop it from running properly. A required external service might go down. Operator error might mess everything up.

Businesses across the country and across the globe are incorporating Internet of Things (IoT) devices like they're going out of style. In many ways, the promise and varied convenient uses of IoT devices like thermostats, lights, security cameras, command hubs, and even smart coffee makers have a great deal of potential for bringing down energy costs, upping work environment quality, and in general making life easier for business owners and employees. While there's no denying the usefulness of IoT devices in the workplace, they are also terribly insecure and they're on your business wifi network.

The digital world is a dangerous but unavoidable place for a modern business, and it's nearly impossible to completely protect your company network from infectious malware and targeted hacking.

As the recent catastrophic waves of ransomware prove, even hospitals with their incredibly strict online security measures intended to protect patient medical information don't stand a chance against viruses handmade to sneak in and cause problems.

When a company grows large enough to expand out of its original building, the owner often chooses to open a second and third store location in a chain, giving these successfully spreading businesses the moniker of 'chain stores'.

When you think of anything in business exploding, you might want to take a step back and consider the situation. Why? What could be so volatile about a growth pattern that we'd use such a strong verb? Well, we were digging into the idea that cloud monitoring as a service would grow rapidly in 2017, and we were glad to find why this market merits this action verb.

In 2017, any drop in your network's performance will affect your enterprise's overall productivity.

Ensuring the optimal performance of your network, in turn, requires sophisticated network performance monitoring.

Through exceptional reporting and optimization, a high-quality network performance monitoring service can ensure that every aspect of your network is always performing at its best.

Here we take a close look at how network performance monitoring works, and the key benefits it provides.