KPIs: How important is monitoring?

Do you know the key KPIs of your ICT environment? In a corporate environment, the data network infrastructure plays an essential role in enabling a company to provide the necessary services to its respective employees when they are working in the office.

When we mention remote employees, the local data network also plays a crucial role, as it often provides systemic resources so that such employees can perform their tasks remotely.

Thus, a healthy IT environment, that is, one that efficiently provides the necessary resources to users, is essential for any organization.

However, how do we know if the network is functioning properly?

Although the answer to this question may seem obvious and simple, such as:

“If no user reports any crashes or slowdowns, the network is functioning properly.”

In reality, the answer is not as simple as it seems above.

The issue is broader than that, and for a company to ensure that its data network is working properly, it is necessary to identify technical variables that empirically point to such a finding.

And how is it possible to identify such variables?

How important is the visualization of these variables for an effective network monitoring?

KPIS, An X-RAY OF YOUR NETWORK

It is about this and other points that we will address in this article.

Initially, we need to understand what makes a data network efficient. With that, let us consider in a summarized way:

Efficient data network using KPIs

It meets the necessary parameters in all factors, premises, and quality standards, so that the company can perform its activities correctly.

At this point, it is worth mentioning that an efficient data consumption is also part of this context. It aims to prevent any damage to the company, caused by the improper use of the data network for other purposes, besides the professional activity.

Based on this, in order for a company to have adequate visibility into the real consumption needs, it is important to segment traffic in an analysis.

Thus, let’s look at some examples of how traffic can be divided below with some possible questions that may help elucidate the issue:

Network traffic consumed by the user

How much network bandwidth does the user consume to perform their daily tasks? Is it possible to distinguish employees by departments or cost centers?

Network traffic consumed by applications

What is the traffic consumed on the network for communication between existing applications? How is this traffic divided between on-premise and cloud applications?

Once we have adequate visibility into the actual traffic that we need, it becomes critical to define metrics that are consistent with such need, technically pointing out in a substantial way the existing scenario.

The implementation of performance indicators (KPIs) for the ICT environment plays an essential role for a company to ascertain whether the environment is healthy and operating in the normality that it is expected.

IMPACTS OF KPIS MONITORING

Here are some examples, where we can see that implementing KPIs supports the proper functioning of the data network:

Identification of excessive consumption

If, for some reason, consumption exceeds the limit that should be respected, no doubt the implementation of metrics will help identify the factors that are causing such an event.

It is worth remembering that sometimes the problem may not only be related to some security breach, but also caused by a greater volume of usability of the network by employees.

Monitoring the evolution of KPIs

When metrics are implemented for network monitoring and management, it is also possible to track the evolution of these indicators. With this, it is possible to analyze accurately and in detail the evolution over the course of an interval (days, months, years) as well as to identify in advance the factors that may have contributed to the variations detected.

This may help in an analysis of the network consumption behaviors over certain intervals, as well as help to provide evidence of the need for a possible new investment.

Effective network management

By using tools that enable to implement metrics about the data network, it is perfectly feasible to complement them with resources that allow sending alerts or alarms to the IT technical team, for example, for each time an unexpected consumption event occurs.

This feature is very useful, as it helps the technical team in the administration of the data network infrastructure, as well as allowing unexpected events to be verified and dealt with, before they become problems.

KPIs and cost reduction

Once your company is able to have visibility over the entire IT park, it will be able to review the resources that may have been hired and that are not being used, for example.

This will allow your company to make decisions based on technical evidence that will not compromise the productivity and efficiency of employees in the execution of their respective tasks.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS 

As we have seen during this article, the implementation of KPIs for data network management and monitoring brings several benefits for the company, from the maintenance of a safer environment to a more efficient resource consumption.

It’s not enough just to have a technology park with robust and up-to-date equipment if there’s no proper visibility into the IT environment infrastructure.

For this reason, the use of KPIs is highly recommended, and this should be accompanied by tools that allow your company to identify all aspects of the ICT environment, as well as points of attention and possible improvements.

There is no doubt about the importance of investing in network management. Thus, it is noticeable that these good practices bring not only benefits to the visibility of the infrastructure, but also a way to ensure crucial information for increasingly assertive planning and strategies.

With this in mind, Telcomanager, Latin  America’s leader in the network management software industry, in the market since 2002 with a unique and innovative methodology, provides intelligent solutions for monitoring data to provide complete visibility of your IT infrastructure, allowing your company to follow the main aspects of its network.

Published on 07/25/2022