Ten Next-Gen Network Monitoring Tools for 2024

The intricate dance of managing modern IT infrastructure can feel like wrestling a wild beast. Network sprawl, the ever-present cloud, and ever-increasing user demands necessitate a paradigm shift in how we approach network monitoring. 

This is where next-generation network monitoring tools emerge as your knight in shining armour. These cutting-edge solutions transcend the limitations of traditional tools, offering a holistic view that encompasses your entire network – on-premises data centres, sprawling cloud deployments, and everything in between. This end-to-end visibility empowers IT professionals to: 

• Proactively Identify and Prevent Issues: Advanced anomaly detection and intelligent diagnostics pinpoint potential problems before they disrupt operations. 

• Optimise Performance: Gain real-time insights into network performance, allowing for bottleneck identification and resource allocation strategies. 

• Simplify Management: Automate routine tasks and streamline workflows, freeing up valuable time for strategic initiatives. 

• Enhance Security: Advanced threat detection capabilities safeguard your network against emerging cyberattacks. 

Now, let’s delve into the top 10 next-gen network monitoring tools currently revolutionizing IT management, providing a deeper dive into their functionalities and value propositions: 

Datadog Network Performance Monitoring (NPM) 

Datadog NPM offers comprehensive network monitoring for on-premise, hybrid, and cloud environments. Its user-friendly interface provides real-time visualizations of network traffic, performance metrics, and application dependencies. Datadog excels in providing a unified monitoring experience by integrating seamlessly with other Datadog products, such as application performance monitoring (APM) and log management. This holistic approach allows IT teams to correlate network performance with application behaviour, enabling a deeper understanding of how network issues might impact applications and user experience. 

LogicMonitor

LogicMonitor boasts a unified monitoring platform that goes beyond simply monitoring network traffic. It ingests data from diverse sources, including applications, infrastructure, and network devices, delivering a holistic view of IT health. This comprehensive data collection allows LogicMonitor to provide insightful dashboards and reports that paint a clear picture of your entire IT ecosystem. 

LogicMonitor empowers IT professionals with powerful automation capabilities. These automated tasks can streamline routine tasks like configuration management and alert escalation, freeing up valuable time for more strategic initiatives. 

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)

SolarWinds NPM remains a popular choice for network monitoring, particularly in on-premise and hybrid environments. A stalwart in the space, it offers deep-dive network diagnostics, performance monitoring, and application path tracing functionalities. 

SolarWinds caters to diverse needs with extensive customisation options. This allows IT teams to tailor the monitoring experience to their specific network infrastructure and preferences. Network maps, custom dashboards, and in-depth reporting capabilities empower you to monitor your network with granularity. 

Prometheus and Grafana

This dynamic duo of open-source tools offers a powerful and flexible network monitoring solution. Prometheus acts as the workhorse, scraping metrics from various network devices and applications. It efficiently collects and stores this data, making it readily available for analysis. 

Grafana, on the other hand, shines in data visualisation. It transforms the raw data collected by Prometheus into insightful dashboards and reports. These customisable dashboards allow IT teams to monitor key network metrics in real-, providing a clear picture of network health and performance. 

The beauty of Prometheus and Grafana lies in their open-source nature. This translates to a high degree of customisation and extensibility. A vast ecosystem of plugins exists for both tools, allowing you to extend functionalities and integrate with other monitoring tools you might already be using. 

Icinga 2

Icinga 2 is a free and open-source network monitoring solution known for its scalability and customisation. It offers comprehensive network device monitoring, alerting, and reporting capabilities. Icinga 2 excels in its ability to handle large and complex network infrastructures efficiently. 

The open-source nature of Icinga 2 allows for a high degree of customisation. A vast ecosystem of plugins exists, extending functionalities and enabling integration with various monitoring tools and platforms. This allows IT teams to tailor Icinga 2 to their specific monitoring needs. 

OpenNMS

Another open-source contender, OpenNMS, provides robust network monitoring for large and distributed networks. It offers extensive customisation options and integrates with diverse monitoring tools and platforms. This allows IT teams to tailor OpenNMS to their specific network infrastructure and monitoring needs. 

OpenNMS excels in its ability to collect and analyse data from a wide range of network devices and protocols. This comprehensive data collection allows for in-depth network monitoring and troubleshooting, ensuring optimal network performance even in complex and distributed environments. 

Splunk Network Monitoring

Splunk leverages its expertise in log management to deliver network monitoring with a focus on security and compliance. It aggregates data from diverse sources, including network devices, security tools, and applications. This comprehensive data collection empowers IT teams to identify and investigate potential threats and security incidents. 

Splunk excels in its ability to correlate network events with security logs, providing a consolidated view of potential security risks. This allows for faster detection and response to security threats, safeguarding your network from cyberattacks. 

Cisco ThousandEyes

ThousandEyes by Cisco provides real-time network path monitoring and performance insights. It leverages a strategically placed global network of observation points to pinpoint bottlenecks and latency issues across complex network paths, including internet links, cloud providers, and internal network segments. 

ThousandEyes empowers IT teams to identify and troubleshoot performance issues impacting user experience across geographically dispersed locations. This proactive approach ensures optimal performance for applications and services delivered over complex network paths. 

ScienceLogic EM7

EM7 by ScienceLogic offers a unified monitoring platform designed to manage complex IT infrastructure. It integrates network monitoring with application performance monitoring (APM), security information and event management (SIEM), and IT service management (ITSM). This comprehensive approach provides a single pane of glass for managing your entire IT ecosystem. 

ScienceLogic EM7 empowers IT teams to correlate data from various sources, enabling a holistic understanding of how network performance impacts application behaviour and user experience. Additionally, it facilitates the identification and resolution of IT incidents by providing a unified view of alerts and events across different IT domains. 

Distilled 

By understanding the strengths and value propositions of these next-generation network monitoring tools, you can make an informed choice for your organisation. Consider factors like network size and complexity, desired features, budget constraints, and existing IT infrastructure to select the tool that empowers your IT team to conquer network chaos and ensure optimal performance for users and applications.