Network Performance Monitoring (NPM) Tools

Network Performance Monitoring (NPM) tools are designed to monitor and analyze the performance and health of computer networks. They provide insights into network traffic, bandwidth utilization, device performance, and other key metrics to help network administrators optimize network performance and troubleshoot issues.

Here are some popular NPM tools:

  1. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor:
  2. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor:
  3. Zabbix:
  4. Cisco Prime Infrastructure:
  5. ManageEngine OpManager:
  6. Nagios XI:
  7. Dynatrace:
  8. Plixer Scrutinizer:
  9. Riverbed SteelCentral:
  10. Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold:

1. SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor:

SolarWinds NPM offers comprehensive network monitoring capabilities, including real-time network performance monitoring, traffic analysis, and device health monitoring. It provides detailed visibility into network devices, interfaces, and applications, allowing administrators to proactively identify and resolve network performance issues.

Key features:

  • Advanced network diagnosis and troubleshooting for on-premises, hybrid, and cloud services with critical path analysis.
  • Hop-by-hop scanning along the critical paths by helping view performance, traffic, and configuration details of devices and applications on-premises, in the cloud, or across hybrid environments with NetPathâ„¢.
  • Response time, availability, and performance of network devices is monitored and displayed, improving operational efficiency with out-of-the-box dashboards, alerts, and reports.
  • Automatically discover network devices and typically deploy in about an hour.

2. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor:

PRTG Network Monitor is a feature-rich NPM tool that provides real-time network monitoring, bandwidth monitoring, and performance analysis. It offers a user-friendly web interface and supports a wide range of network devices and protocols. It also provides customizable dashboards and alerting mechanisms.

Key features:

3. Zabbix:

Zabbix is an open-source NPM tool known for its scalability and flexibility. It offers comprehensive network monitoring capabilities, including performance monitoring, availability monitoring, and event management. Zabbix supports a wide range of devices and protocols and provides a robust web interface for configuration and reporting.

Key features:

  • Network maps
  • Customizable data-rich dashboards
  • Agentless and agent-based monitoring
  • Support for a wide variety of protocols including Modbus and MQTT for IoT
  • Automate responses to problems (e.g. reboot a host)
  • High availability and clustering

4. Cisco Prime Infrastructure:

Cisco Prime Infrastructure is a network management platform with network performance monitoring features. It offers real-time monitoring of network devices, interfaces, and applications, providing insights into network performance and health. It also integrates with other Cisco tools and technologies for end-to-end network management.

Key features:

  • Network Device Management: Cisco Prime Infrastructure offers centralized management of Cisco network devices, including routers, switches, wireless access points, and controllers. It provides a single interface to monitor device health, configuration, and performance, simplifying device management tasks.
  • Network Monitoring and Troubleshooting: The tool provides real-time monitoring of network devices, interfaces, and applications. It offers performance metrics, alerts, and reports to identify and troubleshoot network issues proactively. It also supports network topology views and path analysis to visualize and diagnose connectivity problems.
  • Wireless Network Management: Cisco Prime Infrastructure specializes in managing wireless networks. It offers features for configuring, monitoring and optimizing Cisco wireless infrastructure, including access points, controllers, and client devices. It provides heatmaps, client tracking, and interference detection for efficient wireless network management.

5. ManageEngine OpManager:

OpManager is a comprehensive network monitoring and management tool that includes NPM features. It provides real-time monitoring of network devices, traffic analysis, and performance monitoring. OpManager also offers advanced features such as network mapping, threshold-based alerting, and reporting.

Key features:

  • Uninterrupted monitoring of Wide Area Network(WAN) link availability
  • Checking VoIP call quality across Wide Area Network(WAN) infrastructure
  • Visualizing the automatic L1/L2 network mapping

6. Nagios XI:

Nagios XI is a popular open-source network monitoring tool that provides network performance monitoring capabilities. It offers real-time monitoring, alerting, and reporting for network devices, services, and applications. Nagios XI supports customization through plugins and offers a robust web interface for configuration and management.

Key features:

  • Network Monitoring: Nagios XI provides real-time monitoring of network devices, servers, services, applications, and protocols. It uses a variety of monitoring methods, including SNMP, WMI, SSH, and more, to collect performance data and monitor device health.
  • Availability Monitoring: The tool continuously monitors the availability of network devices, servers, and services. It checks for responsiveness and alerts administrators if a device or service becomes unavailable or experiences downtime.
  • Performance Monitoring: Nagios XI monitors performance metrics such as CPU usage, memory utilization, disk space, network bandwidth, and response times. It helps identify performance bottlenecks, capacity issues, and resource utilization trends.

7. Dynatrace:

Dynatrace is an advanced application performance monitoring (APM) tool that also includes network monitoring capabilities. It offers end-to-end application and network performance visibility, including network latency, packet loss, and response times. Dynatrace provides deep insights into application dependencies and network performance impact.

Key features:

  • Real-time Application Monitoring: Dynatrace provides real-time monitoring of applications, capturing detailed performance data at the code level. It automatically traces transactions and captures metrics related to response times, database calls, external service calls, and more.
  • User Experience Monitoring: The tool monitors user interactions with applications, tracking metrics such as page load times, click paths, and user action analysis. It helps identify performance issues impacting the user experience and provides insights into the impact of performance on business metrics.
  • Deep Code-Level Visibility: Dynatrace offers deep visibility into application code execution. It automatically captures code-level traces and provides insights into method-level performance, CPU consumption, and database query analysis. This helps developers and administrators pinpoint performance bottlenecks and optimize application code.

8. Plixer Scrutinizer:

Scrutinizer is a network traffic analysis and monitoring tool that helps administrators gain visibility into network traffic and performance. It provides detailed analytics, flow-based monitoring, and bandwidth utilization reporting. Scrutinizer also offers advanced features like anomaly detection and threat intelligence integration.

Key features:

  • Network Traffic Analysis: Scrutinizer collects and analyzes network flow data, such as NetFlow, sFlow, IPFIX, J-Flow, and more. It provides detailed insights into network traffic patterns, volume, and bandwidth utilization across the entire network.
  • Application Performance Monitoring: Scrutinizer monitors application performance metrics, including response times, latency, and throughput. It helps identify bottlenecks and performance issues impacting application delivery.
  • Security Incident Detection: Scrutinizer detects and alerts on security incidents and anomalies within the network. It identifies and reports on suspicious traffic patterns, DDoS attacks, malware infections, and other security threats.

9. Riverbed SteelCentral:

SteelCentral is a comprehensive network performance monitoring and diagnostics suite. It provides end-to-end visibility into network performance, including application-level monitoring, network traffic analysis, and device monitoring. SteelCentral offers advanced troubleshooting and analytics capabilities for optimizing network performance.

Key features:

  • Network Monitoring and Troubleshooting: SteelCentral offers real-time monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities for network devices, interfaces, and protocols. It captures and analyzes network traffic to identify bottlenecks, latency issues, and other performance problems. It helps administrators quickly diagnose and resolve network issues.
  • Application Performance Monitoring (APM): SteelCentral provides application performance monitoring features that capture and analyze application-level metrics. It measures response times, transaction performance, and database performance to identify performance bottlenecks and optimize application delivery.
  • User Experience Monitoring: The tool offers user experience monitoring capabilities to capture end-user interactions with applications. It measures user response times, click paths, and transaction success rates, providing insights into the quality of user experience.

10. Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold:

WhatsUp Gold is a network monitoring tool that offers real-time monitoring, performance analysis, and alerting features. It provides visibility into network devices, applications, and bandwidth usage. WhatsUp Gold also supports network mapping, reporting, and automation capabilities.

Key features:

  • Network Device Monitoring: WhatsUp Gold monitors network devices such as routers, switches, firewalls, servers, and wireless access points. It provides real-time visibility into device health, availability, and performance metrics.
  • Application Monitoring: The tool offers application monitoring capabilities to track the performance and availability of critical applications. It monitors application response times, transactions, and database queries, helping administrators identify performance issues and optimize application delivery.
  • Network Traffic Analysis: WhatsUp Gold analyzes network traffic to provide insights into bandwidth utilization, traffic patterns, and application usage. It helps administrators identify bottlenecks, monitor network performance, and optimize bandwidth allocation.

Rajesh Kumar
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