Why network monitoring is important in the educational sector

Originally published on January 31, 2017 by Thomas Timmermann
Last updated on January 23, 2024 • 4 minute read

A switch is a switch is a switch. And whether it is in a computer center or in a hospital or in an office: it must be monitored. That was my first thought, when a sales colleague asked me to write an industry insight on IT monitoring at schools and universities.

It did not take long, however, until the colleague made clear how much demand there is for such an article. Although a switch is always the same, the overall monitoring requirements vary from one industry to another and a monitoring solution for a university is faced with completely different requirements than, for example, a monitoring solution for a hospital.

Specific Requirements In The Educational Sector

For example, schools and universities often have very heterogeneous IT landscapes:

  • Different chairs have different requirements.
  • Often older hardware is used for budget reasons, while new, powerful devices are used elsewhere.
  • Special applications are developed by students, while parallel standard software runs.
  • And then the infrastructure is spread over several campuses.

As well as all the above, the following must be also taken into account when selecting a monitoring solution:

  • It must support as many standards as possible.
  • It must also provide an API to integrate individual software development and exotic hardware.
  • And it must have a simple and cost-effective method of monitoring multiple sites.

I collected and analyzed the requirements, identified the required monitoring features, and supported everything with practical examples. The result is our industry insight "Education". 

Generate Budget With Industry Insights

Over time, a collection of advisors has emerged that can help you identify the most suitable monitoring solution for your industry by showing branch-specific problems and identifying the appropriate solutions. Of course, such industry insights can also be of interest when it comes to establishing the necessary budget for the purchase of a monitoring solution. Normally, your management (or your customer) is easier to convince if, instead of general feature lists, it finds its own problems and targeted solutions in the requirements document.

In the near future, I will upload various industry insights to our website and present it at this blog. If you currently need one, just write me an email.

Download the entire document here...

Monitoring Insights Network Education