Types of IT monitoring

IT monitoring means automatically and continuously keeping track of a company’s computers, servers, network, applications and security, so problems are found and fixed before they stop employees from working. The main types are systems, network, application, website, backup and security monitoring.

To head off problems, infrastructure monitoring services have become increasingly widespread. Whether they’re programs installed on your own servers or cloud services, they track certain parameters and help IT support teams act early, before minor incidents turn into problems.

Will IT see what users are doing all the time if they use this monitoring software?

No. Infrastructure monitoring solutions don’t “steal” users’ personal data, and they don’t let IT spy on them. The IT team can see, for example, that Outlook is running in the background, but it can’t see what emails are being written.

When monitoring workstations, these solutions provide graphs and statistics on resource usage, the condition of components (for example, the disks) and software errors. That way, the support team understands what’s going on when applications run slowly or freeze, and can find the cause of the problem.

Technical monitoring of systems isn’t the same thing as monitoring employees. If a company wants to track its employees’ activity, it needs a legal basis, has to inform them in advance and must comply with GDPR.

How do monitoring solutions work?

Monitoring solutions usually have three components:

• sensors or agents that continuously collect data from computers, servers and network equipment;
• a system that analyzes the information, interprets it and sends alerts when a parameter goes outside normal limits;
• graphical interfaces and reports that the IT support team can understand easily.

Many problems are fixed automatically, for example by restarting a stopped service or installing updates. The rest reach the support team as tickets.

Types of IT monitoring

To monitor a company’s entire infrastructure in real time, there are several types of monitoring. Below, we describe the most widely used ones.

System monitoring

• assesses the performance and physical condition of servers and computers;
• tracks each server individually, including data traffic on the network;
• reports hardware faults, for example a disk that’s starting to fail;
• provides resource usage statistics: processor, memory, disk space.

Network monitoring

It continuously tracks traffic and the state of network equipment (routers, firewalls, switches, wireless access points), so you can see what’s slowing the network down and where optimizations are needed. Dependency monitoring also shows which services depend on one another: if a switch goes down, the IT team immediately knows which servers and which users are affected.

Business activity monitoring (BAM)

Because the company’s activity depends closely on its infrastructure, these statistics can lead to network improvements or even to extracting sales indicators. For example, you can see which products or services customers like and how interest varies by geographic area. It’s used mainly by larger companies.

Web performance monitoring

It tracks websites and web platforms: whether they’re available, how quickly they respond to user requests and what errors occur. This also covers checking SSL certificates, so the site doesn’t end up showing security warnings because of an expired certificate.

Application performance monitoring (APM)

It analyzes applications and the infrastructure they run on, so the causes of problems can be identified and fixed for good. The monitored parameters are resource usage, software errors, application response times and user experience.

Backup monitoring

It checks every day whether backups have been made and whether they can be restored. Otherwise, a backup that fails silently is only discovered on the day it’s needed. See also Backup as a Service.

Security monitoring

It helps identify attacks, whether they target network equipment, servers or computers. It detects suspicious activity, unusual logins and abnormally high traffic on certain devices. Companies that fall under the NIS2 directive (in Romania, GEO 155/2024) must be able to detect incidents and report them to the authorities within 24 hours at most, and without monitoring that’s almost impossible.

What does a company gain from monitoring?

• problems are often fixed before employees notice them;
• hardware faults are flagged early, so replacements can be planned;
• security updates are installed and checked on every computer;
• the company has a clear picture of its infrastructure, which also helps with budget planning.

At RezolvIT, 24/7 monitoring and automatic updates are included in the Business Unlimited plan, and through IT maintenance we run preventive checks on computers, the network and servers. Prevention will always cost less than repair. A free IT audit shows you what’s worth monitoring in your company.