At its most basic level a network is a system made up of two or more computers that share resources and data. It is based on efficient communication to do important tasks more quickly and efficiently. A network is more than the sum of its parts it's an important piece of infrastructure. It makes it possible for things like sharing and accessing a wireless printer between offices and the very existence of the internet. Combining it makes a huge network made up of hundreds of millions of smaller networks that all share information and resources.

Simply putting networks are an important part of how business is done in the 21st century. As a result any modern business should make improving network performance a top priority. That is why every corporation needs to have good network monitoring tools.

What Is Network Optimization?

Network optimization is a broad term for some tools strategies and best practices that can be used to monitor manage and improve the network’s performance. In the fast-paced highly competitive business world of today it's not enough for important networks to work well. We live in a data-driven world. There's no way around it.

Every aspect of our digital lives is affected by how well a network works. When it's done right network optimization can help organizations make their internal and external networks more effective and efficient. If the network isn't working well it doesn't matter how well the company works.

What Impact Network Performance?

When it comes to your network you can't optimize it until you've taken a full look at how things are right now. But if you want to get a clear picture of how your organization's networking works you will find that there are a lot of parameters and parts to consider. To help you get started and focus on the most important areas here are three important things to think about when measuring how your network works:

1. Latency

Latency is the amount of time it takes for data to move from one place to another. A network with less latency is faster and more responsive. This delay in sending data may only be a few milliseconds at each point but when added up it can add up to a noticeable amount of network lag.

1. Availability

Availability is a way to measure how often the right hardware and software for a network work well. The opposite of availability is downtime which is when the systems in question don't work as expected. Optimal availability means that there is no hardware or software downtime that hurts the performance of the network.

1. Packet Loss

A network packet is a small piece of information that can be sent from one place in a network to another. Complete messages files or other types of information are broken up into packets that are sent separately and then put back together at the destination to make the original file. If a packet doesn't arrive in one piece the source will only have to send the missing packet again instead of the whole file.

Why PRTG is the best?

PRTG network monitoring tool from Paessler AG is a well-known and advanced workhorse in the field of network monitoring and optimization. PRTG has a modern interface that works in a browser. Not only is it very useful but it also makes it easy to get where you need to go. The best part of the interface is the network maps which were clearly made with a lot of attention to detail. In one word these are lovely. They look great and you'll not even have to go through a steep learning curve before you can build one.

You can keep an eye on all the devices in your network with Paessler’s PRTG Network Monitor. As a network optimization tool it gives you a lot of information that you can use to improve the performance of each piece of your software and hardware. PRTG lets you optimize your network and make sure users have the best experience possible.

If offers feature like:

1. Cloud network monitoring

Cloud monitoring is a way to look at watch and manage how things work in an IT infrastructure that is based on the cloud. PRTG has many Cloud Management Services that are already set up such as monitoring for mail servers VMware Amazon Cloud Watch and more. This makes it easy to optimize your cloud services.

1. SENSORS

PRTG comes with SNMP sensors that are already set up for switches made by HP Cisco and Dell. Its Packet Sniffer Sensor watches traffic and filters by IP addresses protocols and data types. With the PRTG NetFlow sensors you can also keep an eye on the traffic and bandwidth of switches from companies like Cisco and Juniper.

1. Improves security

With PRTG you can keep an eye on all sensors and get alerts based on what you want to know. Email SMS and push notifications are some of the most common ways to get alerts. They help you keep an eye on the data center and make it safer. Also PRTG always encrypts its own passwords and never writes them to log files. If you send a support bundle to the Paessler support team passwords will be taken out of the configuration file first.

Verdict

In simple words PRTG Network Monitor is a real-time integrated vulnerability scanner that helps IT professionals find and fix problems across the entire infrastructure before they get worse and become crucial to the business. It runs on your hardware so you always have control over all your data settings and updates. So next time when you are planning to use or upgrade your network optimization tools go for PRTG as a one-stop solution for any issue even before it arises.