Network monitoring is a key technology for those looking to manage critical networks proactively. After all, it is much easier to maintain a network if you know what is happening to the various devices, applications and infrastructure components attached to the network.
However, traditional monitoring tools rely on archaic polling methodologies, where a device or component is queried only every so often. Admittedly, status queries can occur as frequently as every couple of minutes, but that is severely lacking, at least when compared to real-time monitoring.
Enter Boundary Networks, a hosted services vendor that is looking to change how network managers think about monitoring technologies. The company has launched a new monitoring platform that is available as a managed service, and offers the unique perspective of real-time monitoring of complex networks, while adding the element of application-centric analysis.
Boundary Networks CEO Gary Read says “it's time to rethink monitoring and tailor it to the realities of today's cloud/virtual-centric IT shops”. That new thinking means a change to how network elements are monitored – Boundary is choosing to use less of a device-centric approach and focus more on the application side of the equation. That becomes doubly important for those seeking to monitor and manage applications tuned to use distributed architectures, such as Big Data applications.
“Big Data applications are built differently than more traditional static applications," says Read. "The infrastructure is very dynamic, typically built on cloud infrastructures where servers come and go on a regular basis. As a result, problems occur in terms of application degradation on a distributed basis."
With that in mind, Boundary Networks is focusing on four major monitoring opportunities:
• Data Collection (metrics) – collect all the data all the time, instead of sampling
• Advanced Analytics – meaningful analytics to help give customers rapid insights into massive amounts of monitoring metrics
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