Importance of Computer network monitoring
Importance of Computer network monitoring
A group of computers
connected to each other by any means that makes
data transfer possible between them, is called
a computer network. There are many types of
computer network like - Personal Area Network
(PAN) for communication with computers nearby,
Local Area Network (LAN) for a relatively larger
area, Campus Area Network (CAN), Metropolitan
Area Network (MAN), Wide Area Network (WAN),
Intranet, Extranet and the most significant
of all, the Internet.
Generally, a computer network in any of the
above forms becomes an important part of one’s
personal or professional life. For businesses,
computer network can be as important as any
other infrastructure in the company. One cannot
take a risk when it comes to computer networks.
A single day without computer network can cause
massive losses to the company. Along with losing
the work hours from the employee, if worse comes
to worst even a complete project can be lost
due to network failures. Moreover, nobody wants
to keep his/her company’s future in such
dilemma.
Computer network management is an inherent part
of a smoothly running computer network. Whether
its resource management or performing upgrades
etc, or may be periodical checks on the network
or the servers, a computer network is not at
its best without proper computer network management.
One of the most vital activities that is performed
in computer network management is Computer Network
Monitoring. It means the use of systems or services
that monitors each and every network activities
non-stop every second.
While an IDS (Intrusion Detection System), monitors
activities on the network from outside, a computer
network monitoring system keeps watch on the
problems that can arise internally like problems
due to servers getting crashed or overloading
or problems from other network devices.
Typically, time is the measure of network monitoring
like in case of response times or availability
times. A simple test request can be sent to
a server and the time taken for the server to
reply back can be a measure of the well being
of the server. Other metrics for networking
like reliability and consistency have also become
popular nowadays.
When the network cannot complete a request,
it goes down the log files of the network monitoring
activity. Other activities after the computer
network monitor detects an error are raising
an alarm or informing the network administrator
by using an email or a text message.
Timely detection of errors in a computer network
can be very useful and in a large number of
times, critical for the network. Hence, Computer
Network Monitoring forms an integral part of
Network activities.
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