IT infrastructure monitoring tools: how to choose?

Infrastructure monitoring is a critical part of MSP operations, and there is no shortage of monitoring tools available. Some are heavily curated and good for niche MSPs, while others are better for broader, larger companies and projects. 

With so much out there, how do you choose which IT monitoring tool to go with?

Choosing the right IT monitoring tool for your setup is complex. Among other factors, the answer depends on:

• Your system setup
• Your overall business needs 
• Your integration needs
• Scalability potential
• Ease of use
• Customization
• Cost

Your valuation of each of the above will help you pick from the glut of IT monitoring tools out there. Regardless of your priorities, monitoring tools can streamline your system operation and automatically resolve IT issues, freeing your team up to do the tasks that AI can’t perform. 

Why is IT infrastructure monitoring needed?

IT infrastructure monitoring ensures the smooth operation and availability of IT systems, helping to detect and resolve technological problems quickly via machine learning. By monitoring the performance and health of servers, networks, and other IT components, organizations can identify and mitigate problems before they result in downtime, waste, or data loss. 

Monitoring also provides valuable data on resource usage and capacity planning. This can help organizations comply with regulatory requirements related to data security and availability.

Because infrastructure monitoring tools are primarily automated, after the right program is selected for your customer’s needs, monitoring takes care of itself to an extent. This allows MSPs to serve more clients at scale. Of course, expert support will still be required to make sure the tools are doing their job, and that issues are troubleshooted accordingly.

How tools support IT infrastructure monitoring

There are a variety of tools and IT monitoring software available, each with their own specific capabilities. Some common types of tools used for infrastructure monitoring include:

• Network monitoring tools: These monitor the performance and availability of network devices and connections. They can alert administrators to issues such as high network utilization, packet loss, and connectivity problems. For example, if power/network outages are a potential regular occurrence, these can help inform your teams’ response strategy.
• Server monitoring tools: These monitor the performance and availability of servers, including CPU usage, memory usage, and disk space. They can also monitor the status of specific services and applications running on the servers. By automating things like checking CPU memory, your team can have time freed up for more advanced tasks.
• Application monitoring tools: These monitor the performance and availability of specific applications, such as web servers, databases, and email servers. They can provide detailed information on application-specific metrics such as response times, error rates, and transaction volumes. This data allows your team to make educated decisions to increase efficiency.
• Cloud monitoring tools: These monitor the performance and availability of cloud-based infrastructure and services. They can monitor the usage and cost of cloud resources and alert administrators to potential issues such as over-utilization or under-utilization. These are effective in any setting where you want to minimize physical bandwidth and move more operations to the cloud. 
• Log monitoring tools: These tools collect, aggregate, and analyze log data from various systems and applications to provide a centralized view of what is happening in the IT infrastructure. They can alert administrators to issues such as security breaches, system failures, and performance bottlenecks. For example, if your team wants to review for any sort of pattern of issues or incidents, these are invaluable.

These tools typically provide alerting and reporting capabilities so that administrators can quickly identify and resolve issues. We will explore this in further detail below.

What does your typical IT infrastructure monitoring tool offer?

A typical IT infrastructure monitoring tool offers a wide range of features to help organizations effectively monitor and manage their IT infrastructure. Some monitoring tools even provide analytics and visualization capabilities that can help organizations better understand the performance and relative health of their IT infrastructure. Other monitoring tool features may include:

• Real-time monitoring: The ability to monitor the performance and availability of IT components in real-time, including servers, network devices, applications, and cloud resources.
• Alerting: The ability to set up alerts and notifications to notify administrators of potential issues, such as high CPU usage, low disk space, or network connectivity problems.
• Reporting: The ability to generate reports on the performance and health of IT components, including historical data and trends.
• Dashboards: The ability to view the status and performance of IT components in real-time, through a web-based dashboard.
• Automated remediation: Some tools can automatically resolve certain issues by running predefined scripts or actions.
• Log management: The ability to collect, aggregate, and analyze log data from various systems and applications to provide a centralized view of what is happening in the IT infrastructure.
• Multi-platform support: The ability to monitor a wide range of IT components, including servers, network devices, applications, and cloud resources, regardless of the operating system or platform.
• Scalability: The ability to scale up or down as the size of an IT infrastructure changes.
• Integration: The ability to integrate with other IT management tools, such as incident management or service management tools.
• Customizable: The ability to customize the monitoring configuration, alerting rules and dashboards to suit the specific needs of the organization.

Keep in mind that the specific features offered by different tools vary. Some tools are geared toward certain specialized niches, such as monitoring cloud infrastructure or network devices, while others are more broadly-encompassing. If you are looking to use a tool for your MSP and one of these capabilities is missing, though, it’s a good idea to ask why.

Our ebook, Top 10 Considerations for Selecting the Right RMM Solution, offers more detailed advice on choosing the monitoring system that’s right for your business. With that said, there are some general traits you should always look for in the option you choose.

Traits of a strong IT infrastructure monitoring tool suite

A strong IT infrastructure is:

• Comprehensive: It should be able to monitor a wide range of IT components including servers, network devices, applications, and cloud resources, regardless of the operating system or platform.
• Easy to use: It should have an easy-to-use interface that allows administrators to quickly access and view relevant information, set up alerts, and run reports.
• Secure: It should provide security features such as access control and encryption to ensure that sensitive data is protected.
• Up to date on reporting and analytics: It should provide detailed reporting and analytics capabilities, including historical data and trends, to help organizations better understand the performance and health of their IT infrastructure.
• Supportive: It should have a good support system, such as a knowledge base, documentation, and customer support, to assist with the setup, configuration, and troubleshooting of the tool.

With this said, each set of IT infrastructure monitoring tools work differently from another, even those that include the above traits. For that reason, we recommend exploring the different tools to find the right one for your business.

Ready to take the next step? To learn more about how to monitor IT infrastructure, request a live demo of the ConnectWise platform and start making your operations more efficient.