The ABCs of IT Infrastructure Monitoring (ITIM)

Your Guide to the Basic Concepts of
Infrastructure Monitoring

Your Introduction to Infrastructure Monitoring

The subject of IT infrastructure monitoring (ITIM) – often referred to as network monitoring – can be overwhelming to beginners. As network complexity grows with new assets, clouds and capabilities so does the range and depth of related topics. So, where should you start?

We’re here to help with that. In our alphabetized index of IT infrastructure monitoring subjects, we’ve captured the basics along with several advanced and newer topics. For each letter from A to Z, we have a blog post that walks you through definitions, examples and the occasional pro tip. Individual posts also link to additional resources when available.

This is an ongoing project. Here are the letters/topics we’ve completed to date:

Letter	Topic	Article
A	Alerts	Network Alerts—Monitoring and Notifications
B	Bandwidth	What is Network Bandwidth? How to Measure and Optimize Bandwidth for Fast, Smooth Traffic Flows
C	Configuration Management	Best Practices: Network Configuration Management
D	Database Monitoring	What is Database Monitoring – and What is it Good For?
E	End-to-End Visibility	How to Achieve End-to-End Visibility Within Network Infrastructure
F	Firewall Monitoring	What is Firewall Monitoring?
G	Grouping Devices	Why Grouping Devices Is So Critical for IT Infrastructure Management
H	Hardware Monitoring	The Ins-and-Outs of Hardware Monitoring
I	Inventory of Assets	How Taking Inventory of Your Network’s Assets Can Benefit Your IT Workers
J	J-Flow and Other IP Samplers	What’s Your Flow? The Differences Between J-Flow, NetFlow and More
L	Log Management	Why is Network Monitoring and Network Log Management So Crucial?
M	Management Information Bases (MIBs)	What Are Management Information Bases (MIBs)?
N	Network Traffic Analysis	What is Network Traffic Analysis?
O	Network Observability	The Great Network Observability Debate
P	Port Monitoring	Start Docking at the Port—The Importance of Monitoring Your Network Ports
S	SNMP	What is SNMP, Anyway? How the Lifeblood of Network Monitoring Works
T	Topology Mapping	What is Network Topology?
V	VoIP Monitoring	How to Monitor VoIP Performance
W	Web Performance	What is Web Performance Monitoring and What is it Good For?
X	application eXperience	Experience This! What is the Importance of Application Experience?

We recommend that you bookmark this page and return to see new additions as we fill out the full list of 26 topics.

Looking for a Single Guide to Get You Started?

We know you’re no dummy, but IT Infrastructure Monitoring For Dummies can help you recognize best practices for monitoring and managing your organization’s network. The eBook covers how to grasp network monitoring fundamentals, defines alerts and actions, and much more. Add this to your knowledge from the ABC posts above, and you’ll be well on your way to becoming an IT infrastructure monitoring master.

Want to Learn More about IT Infrastructure Monitoring?

Try these helpful resources.

Educational Blogs

How-To Blogs

Network Monitoring Functions

WhatsUp Gold IT Infrastructure Monitoring Software

WhatsUp Gold makes IT infrastructure monitoring simple. With one unified network management dashboard, WhatsUp Gold makes it easy to monitor, alert, and report on IT infrastructure performance. IT managers can centralize physical and virtual server monitoring, application performance monitoring, bandwidth monitoring and log management to avoid downtime and fix problems fast.

WhatsUp Gold allows IT to visualize and isolate network performance problems while enabling simple network discovery, mapping and configuration. Watch a demo, request a price quote or try it yourself.