As technology advances, our IT systems become more intricate and interconnected.
From the perspective of IT managers and professionals, it is tough to keep on-premises infrastructure, cloud services and software components running and functional simultaneously.
If they fail, the organizations may face more downtime, resulting in less business and more panic. Hence, there is a need to implement some key tools in your workflow to monitor and manage complex IT systems.
In this post, we will explore such systems in a lot more detail and take a look at some tools that you can use to boost productivity and smooth work activities. We’ll also be highlighting some tips to narrow down to the best possible solution according to various needs.
The Growing Complexity of IT Systems
IT systems are expanding at an unprecedented rate. The move to cloud computing, remote work models, IoT devices and distributed architectures has increased the complexity of IT infrastructures. A single organization might find itself managing: Hybrid cloud environments
Networks with hundreds of active devices
Real-time data storage and retrieval
Industry compliance for data security
To add to the challenge, modern IT systems must meet growing expectations for uptime, speed and data security. Plus, the risks and costs associated with It management solutions must also remain bearable for the companies.
Naturally, the question arises: how can one come up with better IT strategies to easily monitor and manage such systems?
5 Key Tools for Monitoring and Managing Complex IT Systems
Enter the advanced IT tools. These are your solutions to manage and monitor everything about your complex IT systems without breaking a sweat.
As you traverse through our five best IT monitoring and management tools, you will realize how crucial they are to have in your organization.
1. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor
Best for: Mid to large enterprises with extensive networks.
As the name suggests, the solar wind network performance monitor (NPM) provides real-time network visibility and performance analysis for your online servers. The tool comes with a 30-day trial period, so you can use it before and make up your mind for the purchase after.
Key Features for Managing IT Systems
Created by Network Engineers, for Network Engineers: The software is marketed with such a tagline as they emphasize each packet loss and try to intuitively represent each minor discrepancy in your IT systems.
Advanced Alerting System: With NPM, you can easily get alerts about performance issues, regardless of the manufacturer of the hardware.
Hop-by-Hop Analysis: SolarWinds NPM tool uses the Hop-by-Hop analysis with NetPath to critically find problems in your online infrastructure. Then, you can fix these issues with a customizable console, according to your needs.
2. Dynatrace
Best for: Organizations integrating AI into their IT workflows.
Dynatrace simplifies monitoring for cloud environments and microservices using its causal AI capabilities. It comes with a complete, end-to-end infrastructure observability, allowing IT professionals to easily monitor and manage complex IT systems.
Key Features for Managing IT Systems
Autonomous Monitoring with AI-Assisted Root Cause Analysis: Get automatic updates regarding network tracers, problems in connectivity, etc., with AI-assisted root cause analysis.
Integration with DevOps Tools: Dynatrace integrates with DevOps tools, enabling you to easily identify anomalies in connections before they impact users.
Real-time Analytics: As Dynatrace is an APM, you can see business analytics on real-time data through this software. This can allow better decision-making and strategizing for a lot of work-based activities.
3. Splunk
Best for: Teams handling large-scale data logs.
Splunk excels at data analysis and visualization, making it a favorite software for IT teams that need deep operational insights. It handles large-scale data logs like a champ, allowing you to get to the heart of the problem in split seconds. What’s more is that the software is now AI-enabled, making automation in managing IT systems a reality.
Key Features for Managing IT Systems
Being a Cisco Company: Being a Cisco company, Splunk has access to all the network monitoring and management tools that you’d need for the security and integrity of your complex IT systems.
Log Monitoring and Analysis: Splunk provides powerful indexing, searching and visualization capabilities for machine-generated data. This allows for advanced log analysis and reporting, grow business to the next level.
Smart AI assistance: With this tool, you don’t need to spend time manually crawling for data and finding issues. Splunk will do all of that for you on simple, user-provided commands.
4. Nagios
Best for: SMEs seeking open-source solutions.
Being an open-source infrastructure monitoring tool, Nagios is very suited for quick monitoring of network activity and server health. It comes with a lot of custom plugins that you can install to easily troubleshoot for errors in complex networks.
Key Features for Managing IT Systems
Centralized Infrastructure Monitoring: Nagios will gather all your online infrastructure in one place to monitor them in real time and update you immediately about any possible bottlenecks/outages.
Gentler Learning Curve: Since this tool is open-source, you can find a lot of manuals, guides and projects online to help you fix performance issues in your online servers.
Tons of Customizability: Nagios provides a lightweight core package with multiple APIs. It also offers a ton of standalone plugins for intelligent monitoring of your complex IT systems.
Best for: IT teams wanting to look up the MAC addresses of multiple devices at once.
Macaddresslookup.io is a free online tool that allows you to look up the MAC addresses of up to 10 devices at once. This tool can give you information about the hardware vendor, e.g., HP, DELL, Lenovo, etc. Hence, this allows effective and efficient RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) processes and installation of drivers, if needed.
Key Features for Managing IT Systems
Identifies the MAC Address for Troubleshooting Issues: If you ever wanted to install drivers for your complex IT systems but don’t know where to start. Then, Macaddresslookup.io is the tool to use.
Tells Device Registration and Privacy Status: It fetches the latest data about your devices to tell you if they are secure and registered or not.
Search by Mac or Vendor: The tool lets you know your device details by either entering the MAC address or vendor details. You also have the option to let the tool choose for itself by leaving it on Auto Detect.
Learning about the key tools for managing and monitoring complex IT systems is good. But what about the criteria that you should use to identify viable solutions? Let’s find out…
Scalability: Before picking any tool for your organization, you should ask yourself, can the tool handle your infrastructure both now and in the future? For instance, a tech startup might not need to know MAC addresses for a lot of devices in the beginning. But, if the owner neglects the growth aspect, how will they manage to troubleshoot networking issues for a couple of hundred devices at once?
Integration Options: When picking key tools for monitoring and managing complex IT systems, it is vital to consider integration options with other interfaces/APIs. For example, does the selected software work on macros created with Zapier? If not, what can be its alternative? Identifying such things before jumping any bandwagons can save a lot of wasted time and, hence, business potential.
Ease of Use: Is the interface intuitive or will your team need extensive training? You need to answer such questions when picking IT management tools. For instance, we mentioned that Nagios is an open source software that has a gentler learning curve. If you think your workforce isn’t skilled enough yet, then it is better to opt for a solution based on such a tool.
Customizability: Having the ability to customize reporting dashboards and reports according to needs is a blessing for network engineers. If that’s something that you or your co-workers deeply care about, then you need to consider software like SolarWinds NPM as the solution.
Cost Efficiency: Finally, think in terms of cost. What will be the most viable solution for your organization based on the current size of operations?
Consider your present bottom line and think if a big investment will be worth it for the time being..
Tips for Integrating New Tools into Your IT Workflow
Once you decide on your IT management tools, consider these tips for a smooth, flawless integration:
Start Small: Begin with limited implementation to ‘test the waters’ and see how your organization reacts. At this stage, make sure that you have the option to revert the changes if needed.
Train Your Team: Ensure everyone is on board with the new software and tools. They must understand how to use the new resources. Otherwise, there’s no use in all this effort.
Integrate with Existing Tools: Pair your new tools with existing solutions for streamlined workflows. Set macros where possible and the criterion where human interventions are needed for smooth functionality.
Monitor ROI: Track the performance improvements your tools bring to the company. Then, adjust according to what the key metrics suggest.
Final Words
As IT systems continue to change, implementing effective monitoring and management tools becomes essential for organizations to ensure system functionality and prevent downtime.
The discussed key tools in this article provide solutions for various needs, from real-time visibility to large data analysis.
However, you must always consider a set of criteria for selecting these tools to ensure a seamless transfer on the platforms and experience a boost in productivity.
