In recent times, organizations have embraced a hybrid approach to distributed network monitoring depending upon its workloads. In such cases, the need for network traffic monitoring is imperative to gain a unified view on network metrics, as well as to monitor the health of the data flowing through your network. A network traffic monitoring tool is a basic building blocks of an organization's network architecture. It ensures that your network is up and running—and secure. Incorporating a network traffic monitoring platform provides several positives for an organization's network and IT operations. These effects might vary depending upon the size of the organization, its monitoring needs, and how effectively the tool is implemented.

The role of network traffic monitoring tools in modern network

An organization can face setbacks that are both predictable and avoidable by not implementing a network traffic monitoring system. Network issues can include an impact on network security, performance, policy compliance, and operational efficiency. By not implementing network traffic monitoring software, you may face these challenges:

1. Bottlenecks and congestion: Without a network traffic monitoring tool, it's difficult to address and identify network congestion and bandwidth bottlenecks which often cause slow response times, prolonged downtime, and lost productivity.
2. Inept resource allocation: Network resources that are either over-utilized and under-utilized result in unnecessary cost expenditure or inadequate utilization for critical network functions.
3. Security vulnerabilities: Without using a network monitoring tool, network administrators are often unaware of the security threats—such as malware or distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks—that might go unnoticed, potentially resulting in security breaches and data leaks.
4. Ineffective traffic shaping: Quality of service (QoS) policies ensure that mission-critical applications are given priority over non-mission-critical applications. Lack of a network traffic monitoring tool often results in uneven application performance.

What should you look for in a network traffic monitoring tool?

An ideal network traffic monitoring tool is a critical component of modern IT infrastructure management. It helps organizations optimize performance, enhance security, troubleshoot issues, ensure compliance, and make informed decisions about network resources, ultimately contributing to the overall success of the organization's IT operations. An optimal network traffic monitoring tool would encompass all of the following capabilities.

1. Real-time network traffic monitoring

A comprehensive network traffic monitoring tool should offer instantaneous insight into every aspect of your network infrastructure in real time. It also needs to include a centralized dashboard that displays all network monitoring metrics, traffic patterns, and security events.

NetFlow Analyzer provides network administrators with essential visibility into network traffic by performing real-time network traffic monitoring based on flow data. It monitors key traffic metrics like network speed, top conversations, and bandwidth utilization with real-time graphs and alerts.

2. Automated alerts and actions

A reliable network traffic monitoring tool should provide real-time alerts on potential security breaches and vulnerabilities. Allowing administrators to define custom alert thresholds that reduce manual intervention is also vital and would equip you with a proactive maintenance and issue prevention platform. NetFlow Analyzer can easily be set to generate alerts that promptly notify you whenever network traffic utilization surpasses your pre-defined threshold settings. This solution facilitates efficient threshold management through the use of Alert Profiles, enabling you to configure threshold values based on factors such as utilization, duration, and frequency.

3. Historical data and reporting

An ideal network traffic monitoring solution should maintain historical data for trend analysis, capacity planning, and forecast reporting. It also needs to offer customizable reporting and dashboards to visualize and analyze network performance over time. NetFlow Analyzer's Forensic Reports helps you troubleshoot incidents faster and mitigate required actions into any network network metrics based on historical traffic data or raw data that helps you achieve efficient bandwidth use.

4. Integration capabilities

It is essential to support industry standard protocols for seamless integration with various applications and tools that can scale-up, as well as include customizable plug-ins and add-ons. Ideally, this helps you meet your network needs from a single console without having to switch between multiple tools. NetFlow Analyzer seamlessly integrates with other application and tools, such has Application Monitoring, Webhook, Slack, Network Configuration Management, to help you proactively monitor your network services.

5. Security monitoring

A network monitoring tool should be capable of identifying alerts, as well as include features like intrusion identification, anomaly detection, and threat intelligence system. These security monitoring features are essential for diagnosing threats before they can bring the entire network down. NetFlow Analyzer's Security module helps you detect any irregularities in your network. You can troubleshoot traffic spikes with the Advanced Security Analytics Module (ASAM), which helps detect zero-day network intrusions in real time.

6. Reports

A good network traffic monitor should allow you to generate historical and real-time reports, help you analyze and understand bandwidth usage patterns and network traffic behavior enables you to understand your network better, as well as find and fix any underlying issues in your network so you can plan for growth. NetFlow Analyzer provides a range of NetFlow reports, giving you insights into your organization's bandwidth usage, encompassing historical, current, and future perspectives.

7. Hybrid environment support

The best network traffic monitoring tool should be compatible across different platforms, such as Windows and Linux, supporting a variety of devices, and providing scalability for future network expansion. NetFlow Analyzer supports and runs on both Windows and Linux, and monitors flow data to track traffic utilization, anomalies, and more.

8. Cost-effective licensing

A network monitor tool should provide flexible licensing options that align with an organization's needs and are tailor-made for their network. In this way, enterprises are assured they have a seamless and satisfactory user experience while using the network monitoring services. NetFlow Analyzer provides three different types of Editions (Standard, Professional, and Enterprise) that deliver à la carte features essential and exclusively for your enterprise.

About NetFlow Analyzer:

NetFlow Analyzer is a comprehensive tool for monitoring network traffic, encompassing the collection, visualization, analysis, and reporting of your network's bandwidth utilization and user activities. It provides in-depth visibility into network traffic patterns, security incidents, and bandwidth bottlenecks, empowering network administrators to make well-informed decisions and enhance overall enterprise network efficiency.

Flow monitoring

Utilizing flow technologies, NetFlow Analyzer collects data to provide visibility into the transmission of data across the network. In addition to its roles in network forensics, network flow monitoring, and network traffic analysis, the tool facilitates app-centric monitoring and traffic shaping capabilities, allowing control over bandwidth-intensive applications.

Reporting

The inclusion of capacity planning reports supports informed decisions about bandwidth utilization and aids in anticipating future data requirements. NetFlow Analyzer also provides on-demand billing reports for accounting and departmental chargebacks.

Network forensics and security analysis

Deploying its capabilities in network forensics and security analysis, NetFlow Analyzer can track network anomalies that might bypass standard firewalls, and detect a wide range of internal and external security threats that pose potential harm to the network. Real-time insights into network bandwidth are provided through pinpoint-concise reports that reveal traffic patterns and device performance.

Deep packet inspection

With comprehensive visibility achieved through deep packet inspection, you can identify, detect, classify, and control specific data packets responsible for consuming excessive bandwidth.

ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer simplifies the task of ensuring the efficiency of network traffic, empowering you to make well-informed choices regarding your network's bandwidth utilization. As part of the ManageEngine ITOM suite, NetFlow Analyzer provides network traffic monitoring for both Windows and Linux systems, supporting all major devices and data flow formats, including NetFlow, sFlow, jFlow, IPFIX, and AppFlow.