Whether you’ve turned your server management over to a hosting provider or are still managing your resources in-house, understanding what is going on within your servers, website and hosting platforms is vital to business continuity. The effects of even an hour of downtime can be catastrophic to a business’s bottom line.
Server monitoring and alert management are similar to the dashboard of your car. Given the complexity of systems, processes, and technologies involved in keeping a motor vehicle running, it would be impossible to properly monitor the vehicle’s components for problems without an alert system. The car’s dashboard is that system. In the world of IT management and alerts, there are a number of factors that need to be monitored in real time. There are a variety of technologies that will do this without your participation while providing timely alerts at the first sign of possible complications or service disruption. This article will spotlight what needs to be monitored, outline applications for alert management, and guide you through the process of server monitoring and alert management.
What You Need To Monitor
Successfully monitoring your IT infrastructure depends on effective, reliable, and prompt alerts. You need to be assured that you will be made aware of any time critical changes that are taking place within the server infrastructure. How do monitoring tools work? In essence, you (or your hosting provider) will establish conditions that need to be met. Any time these conditions are not met, or are in danger of not being met, the monitoring tool will send an alert. The three primary metrics to monitor are as follows.
- Server and Network Availability: Monitoring the availability of servers, websites, and hosting platforms is critical to ensuring minimal downtime. Availability monitoring tools help alert you to possible service interruptions immediately so you can assess and resolve the issue without experiencing a loss of service to customers. These tools will monitor your server, website, and hosting platform automatically and send alerts at the first sign of service interruption risk.
- Network and Server Performance: Performance monitoring tools record critical service and performance metrics and functions very similarly to the dashboard on your car. Examples of monitored metrics include desktop input/output bottlenecks, incoming and outgoing traffic, and CPU utilization. The most vital metrics can be listed as priorities and alerts can be sent to your email, via text or through various applications.
- Critical Activity on The Server: Monitoring the various activities taking place on your server is crucial to spotting security, backlog, and downtime risks. Monitoring tools can keep track of log in and log out attempts, restarted services, security breaches, and unexpected application terminations. These metrics can be stored in logs and accessed via email or internal applications.
These are the basic metrics. Additional metrics can be monitored, and alerts can be set up in a customized fashion as you grow more familiar with the process and application.
Finding The Best Monitoring Management System For Your Business
There is a host of tools, programs and applications available to businesses. Finding the right server monitoring and alert system depends on a number of factors. The first aspect to consider is the ability and competency of your staff to install and monitor these applications. Technically savvy companies with IT staff that have the time to install alert programs and troubleshoot problems can choose from one of a dozen free alert creation applications. For those without the technical knowledge or the time to install, customize and troubleshoot these applications, a web-hosting provider can take over. Most web-hosting providers offer complex monitoring and customizable alert systems for clients. To discuss which would work best for your company, call a local web hosting provider or data center today.
Ready to See How Volico Data Center Can Help You?
Got questions? Want to talk specifics? That’s what we’re here for.
Have one of our friendly experts contact you to begin the conversation. Discover how Volico can help you with your Managed Hosting Services needs.
• Call: 888 865 4261
• Chat with a member of our team to discuss which solution best fits your needs.
