Network Monitoring

The growing complexity of today's IP networks demands professional monitoring and management tools to keep tabs on the state of the network and address problems as they crop up. Network monitoring products which track the availability of distributed devices and systems can be delivered as appliances or software and often use standard protocols such as SNMP to poll devices for their status. Monitoring tools are typically passive, in that they don't take automated actions to resolve a problem. Instead, these products can send e-mail notifications or otherwise alert IT staff when thresholds are missed, devices become unresponsive, or various failure modes are sensed. Network management tools provide more active capabilities and encompasses higher-level functions than network monitoring. For example network management tools allow users to track IP addresses, configure devices and systems, do capacity planning and manage network performance.