Protect Your Customers|
Healthy Server Reseller News |
Oct 22, 2007 |
In this issue
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Service For
Your Customer |
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Monitor Your Customer's Network You’ve probably dealt with a customer’s crashed server. Once the disaster is over and they are operational again, have you thought about how the incident could have been prevented? In some cases, you’ve probably warned your customer that their server was running on borrowed time and you weren’t surprised when you got his frantic call. But what about the server that crashed that was not too old and was running fine the last time you checked it. Could you have known there was a problem brewing? Did you miss the warning signs? Could you have taken actions to prevent the disaster? Your customer depends on you to effectively maintain a reliable network for them. Network Monitoring is the answer. It will give you the tools, knowledge and ability to know what is going on at all times on their network so you can stop problems often before they occur. An effective Monitoring Service will continuously supply you with the information you need to maintain your customer’s network at peak performance of their bandwidth, servers, applications, and their entire network environment. Do your research. Once you present your customer with the right solution, they will easily be able to see the tremendous benefits that network monitoring will bring to their business. Putting a system in place is simple. Carroll-Net Monitoring is an effective and inexpensive solution to the need to monitor. You can read more about this service online at http://reseller.carroll.net/index.php/reseller-services/3-service-list/7-network-monitoring Author:
pat@carroll.net |
Important Monitoring Capabilities
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Rising demand for network monitoring Walking into the office on Monday morning and finding that the company’s network server or another mission-critical system has been down all weekend is one of every business owner’s worst nightmares. For small and mid-sized companies in particular, technology is often unmonitored, and problems go unnoticed until something fails. This can make an immediate and significant impact on the bottom line, resulting in lost business and operating time, not to mention costly repairs. As the corporate world relies more and more on computers to keep businesses up and running 24/7, technology service providers are responding with a new generation of monitoring programs that detect and address problems before they reach “emergency” status. Monitoring, diagnosing and minimizing downtime Retaining a vendor to monitor servers, networks and other “intelligent” devices is something that every company should consider. For businesses that partner with datacenter providers, this includes both the hardware and applications housed at the remote data center as a well as the in-house network. In-house monitoring involves the installation of a network device probe that reports back to a central station. This enables the service provider to know immediately if a customer’s Internet connection has been interrupted. They can test predefined thresholds, such as whether a server’s disk space is nearly full. They can tell if a phone system is down. An intelligent circuit can tell them if the building power is running low or is out. They may even have environmental monitoring gear plugged into data rooms to measure temperature and humidity. When an alert trips, information feeds into a database that should include details of the customer’s technology infrastructure. A good monitoring vendor will document equipment profiles, warranties, service providers, circuitry and other important information. In other words, if something goes down, they should know how it was put up in the first place. They should also understand the diagnostic process necessary to fix the problem. This provides two critical advantages in minimizing down time. For example, at Carroll-Net, if a client’s Internet connection fails, the problem is diagnosed. Is the T1 down because Verizon is having circuit problems or because the power company is having a power failure? If the problem is Verizon, there is a circuit identification for the client and the phone number to call for service. This type of intelligent scripting also enables the ability to determine if an alarm is a true emergency or a warning. In most cases, a problem can be detected and service scheduled before a client requires a costly emergency repair. The network device probe can also assist strategies like capacity planning. If a company has an e-commerce website set up to handle 50 inquiries at a time, traffic is monitored and alerts any time the load goes above 50 potential shoppers. The client can then anticipate the need for more resources. Responding to small business needs High-quality monitoring services traditionally have been associated with large businesses. However, the reality is that the cost of implementing this type of high-grade monitoring and infrastructure maintenance process is relatively inexpensive, especially when compared to the business losses associated with system failures. In addition, many companies have begun to offer programs specifically catered to small and mid-sized businesses. The important consideration when selecting a monitoring company is to look for a strong service bureau-type relationship. In addition to detecting and notifying their customers about problems, good vendors are able to take immediate action to correct a situation. Impeccable record-keeping is also a requisite to minimizing downtime and frustration in the midst of a technology emergency. In sum, taking proactive measures to identify and correct technology problems before they impact the bottom line is simply smart business practice. With the growing number of affordable options in the market, now is a good time for every business that relies on technology to consider its monitoring needs. Author: jim@carroll.com |
Market
Checkup
Sept 24th - Oct 19th |
Copyright (c) Carroll-Net, Inc., 2007
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