Agents, or monitoring programs that live on each individual device, will run and report back on important telemetry. The advantage of this method is that you can typically get more in-depth data than using an agentless system, since the agents will generally have a greater level of hardware access. The other method is an agent-based system. These tend to deliver a large part of the solution in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, which just means you'll be accessing the software via the web (though this may bring security considerations to the fore depending on the business). This analyzer will also need all the access credentials for each of the systems and services that you want to monitor. This approach has advantages in that it doesn’t need to be installed on each individual device, and it can automatically discover and categorize the devices on your network with minimal effort on your part. The drawback is that you typically need a dedicated system with enough horsepower to run the software and its supporting database and if you have more than one office, you'll probably need such a muscled machine in every one of them. There are two major categories of monitoring tool. The first is what's called an agentless platform. This is typically installed on premises, meaning on a server or workstation that's physically attached to your network. Fortunately, the tools to make that process easier are numerous and mature. They're general purpose network monitoring tools, and we’ve tested and ranked the top players.
If anything, it's become more difficult, since you'll need to find out about problems and solve them, during a time when it's not so simple to set foot inside your data closet.
Welcome to the world of being an IT manager. And, no, this hasn't gotten easier now that we're all working from home due to the pandemic. It's a misty five o’clock in the morning, and suddenly a few key servers on your network go down. You're busy sleeping, so you don’t find out about it until your users get in and raise a fuss. By the time you arrive, your boss is frothing at the mouth and you're looking for somewhere to hide.