It is every entrepreneur’s dream: the numbers soar immediately after a start-up launches in the market, the company is gaining traction in the media, the service is recommended widely on social channels and sales are coming through the door thick and fast.
In reality however, sudden growth often has a downside; the euphoria that accompanies a successful launch can turn into sleepless nights as the company’s IT systems or infrastructure begins to collapse under the pressure that comes with rapid growth. The server buckles, downloads take forever, and logins get stuck. The longer the outage, the higher the resulting cost to the business. An established company might be able to ride through it, but for a start-up this is much more difficult to bounce back from.
It is actually like surfing; you wait in the water for ages before the perfect wave comes along. But start-ups need to be very agile and move quickly, especially in the early stages, so they don’t have the luxury to wait around and see what impact it (the wave) might have. Start-ups need to ask themselves, how can they ensure they are productive in order to ride the wave for as long as possible?
What is network monitoring?
There are simple solutions available that allow start-ups to focus on growing their business and meeting customer demand rather than worrying about their IT systems. Simple network monitoring tools ensure that businesses, especially start-ups, can track the availability of systems, services, applications and bandwidth usage, as well as stay informed of potentially serious issues, before they become a major problem.
A high performance network is a basic ‘must have’ for a functioning IT infrastructure in a company of any size. To ensure smooth business procedures, all processes should run without complications, including both internal and external communication, such as with customers and partners for example. Malfunctions and failures in operational processes easily result in loss of time, as well as financial loss, which can be a huge strain on a start-up in those crucial first few years of business. Start-ups often haven’t had the time to build up customer confidence, so an IT failure could mean losing potential customers forever.
So, what are the business benefits?
- More time to focus on growing the business
A monitoring solution generally proves itself through early recognition and reporting of errors, malfunctions and exceeded thresholds, and thus enables immediate intervention. In addition, the IT administrator no longer has to keep constant watch over all network components, including servers, desktop computers, applications, traffic, etc. As such, the monitoring system saves valuable time, enabling more focus to be placed on growing the business.
- Security
A monitoring solution also contributes significantly to the security of a network, a particularly important factor for start-ups, which could be considered more vulnerable than well-established companies. If the solution reports a sudden jump in CPU usage or if traffic values suddenly differ significantly from the norm, this can be an important hint for the IT administrator of a possible malware or phishing attack for example. Moreover, network monitoring software can easily be integrated into existing security concepts that have virus scanners, firewalls, etc., to provide additional security.
- Greater control
Many start-ups often use various external IT service providers and rely on their partners. Entrepreneurs instead want to focus on becoming established in the market and work on their business model. Unfortunately service provider systems can sometimes fail too. Therefore, it is paramount that despite battling with numerous priorities, start-ups must still keep an eye on their own IT infrastructure. To do this efficiently, you should have all your information in one place. Network monitoring solutions offer more control through comprehensive monitoring of the entire network infrastructure and immediate alerts. The IT administrator has the network under constant observation and is provided with detailed insight into network processes and the usage of individual resources. The current status and other detailed information are available at any time.
As several solutions provide remote access or smartphone apps, the administrator can even take care of the network when they are not on location. This significantly reduces the stress factor for the business: as long as no alert has been reported, you can assume everything is working smoothly.
- Increased potential
Reliable trend analysis can even be created from the network monitoring software’s comprehensive data collection. This gives both the business and the IT administrator deeper insight into the IT infrastructure and enables them to discover and realise optimisation potential well in advance. For example, determining actual bandwidth usage allows the IT administrator to plan and provide the necessary resources more systematically for quick business growth.
- Financial savings
As some professional network monitoring solutions with large functional ranges are being offered for reasonable prices, these solutions put little stress on a company’s budget while offering high potential for saving time and resources. These tools can also prevent significant financial losses caused by delayed failure identification. For a start-up, every minute of a failure means a loss in revenue. While selecting a solution, it is important to ensure that the manufacturer provides a transparent licensing model. This prevents the user from having to buy necessary functions as separate add-ons.
Network monitoring tools ensure quick reactions by reporting error messages in time and, thus, eliminate downtime significantly, if not completely. Analysis of the actual network status makes it possible for IT administrators to account for weak spots or usage peaks and to adjust, replace or cut these out accordingly before they lead to serious impairment of business processes. Whilst networks may not have been the top priority for most start-ups historically, a healthy and efficient IT system is now the absolute lifeblood of a flourishing business; so make network monitoring one of your key business priorities for 2015.
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About the Author:
Andrew Timms, ANZ Channel Manager, Paessler AG
