Monitoring and its importance

According to Wikipedia, “Monitoring generally means to be aware of the state of a system”. It is an essential part of any organization, state, government and even family. Monitoring helps us to avoid circumstances that may cause loss to time, money, resource, relation, etc. For instance, let us take a very simple example of a business organization lacking efficient internal monitoring system. This may lead to many circumstances such as server break down, power failure, etc. It causes delay in work, wastage of time, loss of money, loss of resources, etc plus an additional expense that the organization will have to bare to solve the issue.


Being more specific, we can say that monitoring should be done appropriately according to priority. As I work in an IT industry, I know the importance of servers, network, computers, etc in an organization. Hence, these must be the first things to be monitored effectively and efficiently to avoid break downs and hindrances in smooth work flow.

A computer network must be constantly monitored to avoid slow or failing network. Continuous monitoring is done be a system that notifies the network administrator in case of outages. An intrusion detection system monitors networks from outside threats, whereas an internal network monitoring system monitors network to avoid problems such as overload, network crash, etc. Network monitoring is a critical IT function that can aid in saving a lot of cost of the company in network performance, infrastructure, employee productivity and many other things. Following are some of the strategic tasks a network monitoring system can do for the organization:

• Confirm regulatory and policy compliance

• Search redundant resources and emphasizes on possible cost savings

• Solve efficiency-sapping mysteries like dropped mail sessions

• Help determine employee productivity

• Spot overloaded equipment before it can bring down a network

• Identify weak wide-area-network links and other bottlenecks

• Measure latency, or the delayed transfer of data

• Find anomalous internal traffic that might be indicate a security threat

Server monitoring is done to have a check on the speed of the server, failures and other such problems. By this the owner will be able to know when one or all of his computer devices are down due to server issues. Monitoring if done regularly, can avoid outages and help company from losses due to major crashes and break downs.

Monitoring equipments help to take immediate actions and respond to the problems before it becomes an unavoidable issue and start harming the devices, processes, time and cost. Network monitoring systems can be software or firmware, simple or complex. There are open-source tools available which are innovation and very inexpensive. They can work with most of the tools, platforms and environments. If you feel that your network is too complex and it requires professional skills to monitor, you can always outsource monitoring. Outsourcing companies offer wide level of services and packages that can suit your budget. Their professional touch will make it all the more advantageous for the organization.

ACS Services is one such company that provides IT services for easy management. Its list of services includes:

• Managed IT Services

• Network Support

• Server Support

• PC Support

• Help Desk Services

• Help Desk On Demand

• Setup and Configuration

• Relocation Support

• Data Protection

• Total Server Protection

• Disaster Recovery

It is a one-stop destination for all your IT needs. Now professional monitoring is not too far away. For more information, visit:

http://www.acs.com/

Other sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_monitoring

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_server_monitoring

http://www.cio.com/article/133700/Network_Monitoring_Definition_and_Solutions


- Brian Kingsley, Director of Technical Services, Boston

Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) Vs Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES)

Blackberry is a wide range of mobile devices owned by a Canadian company, ‘Research In Motion’ (RIM). Blackberry’s main targets are people whose internet usage is high. These are generally businessmen, corporate executives, professionals, lawyers, etc.


BIS stand for Blackberry Internet Service and it is offered free when you purchase a data plan of any blackberry phone. BIS facilitates a blackberry customer with internet browsing, e-mail checking, online chatting, etc. A BIS account is created for you where you can integrate up to 10 e-mail accounts. You can visit the following websites to create an account for yourself if you have purchased a new blackberry phone:

AT&T: https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=mycingular

Nextel: https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=nextel

Sprint: https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=sprint

T-Mobile: https://my.t-mobile.com/Login/Default.aspx

Verizon: https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=vzw

Optus (Australia): https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=vzw

Telstra (Australia): https://bis.ap.blackberry.com/html/?brand=telstra

Three (Australia): https://bis.ap.blackberry.com/html/?brand=three

All you need to do is create an account and attach it to your webmail site and mailbox. This process does not take more than 15 minutes. It is basically a free version of blackberry software and has no centralized management. Each device needs to be managed individually.

People generally get confused between BIS and BIS. Let me explain what BES is, to make things clear.

BES or Blackberry Enterprise Server is a software package that operates as a centralized link between wireless mobile devices, enterprise applications and wireless networks. This is mainly designed to meet the needs of enterprise. With this software you can have access to all your e-mails, contacts, calendar, memo, schedules, tasks, etc. It is costlier than BIS but management will be much easier. Companies are advised to purchase this software if there are at least 10 blackberries in the office. This device helps to include wipe and lock command in case your phone gets stolen. Let me brief you up with some of the key feature of BES:

• Forwards e-mail from your corporate ID

• Compatible with Microsoft® exchange, IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Novell® GroupWise®

• You can view your MS office attachment

• Browse your websites as per corporate policy.

• Provides access to personal information management tools such as calendar and address book.

• It contains Integrated Security Triple Data Encryption Standard (DES) or Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to protect confidentiality of data.

• You can instantly synchronize data and organize and update your calendar.

• Wireless automatic backup to BlackBerry 8830 device setting and preferences over the wireless network.

Even though you have hosted BIS on your own BES server, RIM receive all communications as it is a centralized delivery. This has led to security issues as RIM is a Canadian company and US government feels that important and sensitive messages are going out of the country. However, RIM issues security patches for Blackberry phones for higher security. It asked corporate customers to install an interim patch for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server and an interim patch for the BlackBerry Professional Software. RIM also advised BlackBerry users to open PDF attachments only from "trusted sources”.

- Brian Kingsley, Director of Technical Services, ACS Services, Boston

http://www.acs.com/