In the past, only a few essential business tasks were computerized. As such it was possible to continue running a successful business if there was an issue with your computers. Nowadays most, if not all, business operations rely on the optimal working of your IT system.
It is hence virtually impossible to continue working if anything affects it. With this realization, businesses are now investing in IT backup systems in case something happens to their primary data location. Though essential, this is not enough.
Your IT network support agency will also recommend a continuous monitoring solution to guarantee your system is in tip-top shape. Waiting for your IT system to stop working so you can get a repair expert will be not only cost-inefficient but also cause huge losses in downtime.
There are different IT monitoring tools nowadays including network, infrastructure, and applications monitoring tools among others. These tools all generate four critical types of data that reflect the status of your IT system. The following are these IT monitoring data types.
Logs
These are records of certain events over a specific period. The logs in IT monitoring will provide a clear picture of a particular event and when and why it happened.
They are stored in plain text messages though they will require the developers from your IT support agency to customize the message for your IT staff to understand. If viewed in sequence, the logs collected by your monitoring tool will give a complete picture of the errors and all actions performed on your hosts and applications.
Metrics
These denote the measurement of an asset, process or resource in your IT system at a specific time. Metrics are recorded in numeric, unlike logs. This makes it easier to plot them in graphs and perform certain calculations on them.
Metrics collected after your CPU is monitored, for instance, show how your hosts will use the CPU and pick any changes on it. If you notice unusual graph changes, you can act accordingly since this might mean a breach of your system.
Traces
These are documentation of particular transactions as they are recorded in your IT infrastructure. These transactions can be incoming HTTP requests from users, remote API calls or database calls among others. The traces in your IT monitoring are essential for the understanding of how individual actions will affect your overall infrastructure and applications.
User Experience
This monitoring data records what people will experience when accessing your website or application. This is crucial information more so in this era of online marketing to understand the elements that drive your user retention and satisfaction.
The user experience data your monitoring tool will collect will give you an insight on what should be changed in your network to boost your customer satisfaction.
To cater to an ever-growing need for IT monitoring, there are now various types of monitoring tools available. Some can even be downloaded online at no cost. Integrating a monitoring tool into your system without expert guidance might, unfortunately, expose your data to security breaches.
Moreover, there is little you can do with the above monitoring data without an expert to interpret and advise you accordingly.