Telchemy & Paessler – Keeping Everyone Talking Since my great-great-great-grandfather, Alexander Graham Bell*, patented the first telephone in 1875, the technology has become a key part of business communications (*OK, so we’re not actually related). The technology may have evolved enormously over the intervening 144 years, but the basic idea remains the same – keep everyone talking.
As networks become ever more critical to the operation of your business, complexity continues to increase. So you need to be sure that PRTG is genuinely giving you full visibility of all network devices. IP Fabric can help you answer the question, "Am I really monitoring all of my network"? Walk with me and I'll explain how.
The attack on a water company in Oldsmar, Florida, is an almost textbook illustration of the security flaws that still prevail in many critical infrastructures. The lack of damage from the attack was a lucky coincidence rather than due to a thorough security concept. The incident underscores the need for intelligent, real-time monitoring in critical infrastructure.
VQM (voice/video quality monitoring) is an advanced monitoring methodology used to mitigate and resolve performance-affecting issues before they become catastrophic. VQM works by leveraging both active (synthetic) and passive (live call/session) testing and analysis. With typical premise-based Unified Communications (UC) implementations, voice and video conferencing application traffic travels over the organizations existing LAN/WAN infrastructure.
This article is part 1/2 about the protocols, gateways, and data transmission methods (as well as wireless protocols) relevant in building state monitoring. But let's first start with the philosophy behind it all, which is mainly based on manufacturer independence and open systems.
It doesn't matter whether it's in the cloud, a hybrid solution or on-premises: Ultimately, IT takes place on physical computers in a building - the data center. In order to ensure excellent performance and trouble-free operation of a data center, it is essential to keep a constant eye on a whole range of different components, both in IT and in facilities, in order to detect flaws as early as possible and thus avoid problems, damage and breakdowns:
Time for another new release of PRTG Network Monitor. Our latest PRTG version, 21.1.66, is ready for installation and is packed with several new features. That said, have you tried all the new sensors we introduced you to with the previous PRTG versions? For example, the new Veeam Backup Job Status Advanced sensor or the Microsoft Azure Subscription Cost sensor? No? Then be sure to check them out, just in case there are no new sensors for your environment in this release. Because the new sensor types I'll introduce today are all about Industrial IT. With our two new OPC UA sensor types we deliver two real heavyweights when it comes to communicating with machines on your shop floor.
Whether you call it Industry 4.0, IIoT or Smart Manufacturing, the objective behind these trendy buzzwords is the same - to “connect all the things”. Whether you're responsible for a segment of critical national infrastructure, production lines in a thingamabob factory or a small family run farm; instrumenting and collecting data from your production environment can transform your business in terms of efficiency, cost savings and profitability. As Sir Francis Bacon (among others) observed “scientia potential est” or “knowledge is power”.
If you ask an IT administrator or an IT manager which room is the most important in the company, the answer is usually clear - the server room or the data center. This is the central IT node, which must be protected by security measures and monitored like no other room. This article is about physical security of data centers, how you can improve it with PRTG and how to simultaneously reduce the consumption of resources.
LoRa, Sigfox, MIOTY, and NB IoT (or LTE-M), so many names, so many LPWAN players, so many ways of connecting devices fast, reliably, and cost-effectively. There's an increasing demand for connecting simple devices such as sensors and actuators with as little energy consumption and the greatest coverage possible. Although LPWAN (low-power wide-area networking) is just one of several transmission technologies in the IoT (Internet of things) field, it is becoming increasingly important, for the private and the commercial sector, like industrial processes (IIoT), fully connected buildings (building state monitoring), and projects in the context of Smart City, Smart Agriculture, and Environmental monitoring. Specific requirements for building state monitoring that go beyond LPWAN will be covered in a separate blog article soon.
Dell server and storage systems are not only used in corporate data centers, but also by cloud providers who provide their customers with various services such as IaaS, PaaS or SaaS. Ensuring that all systems function smoothly is a decisive criterion here. Disruptions or even failures can quickly result in financial losses. In this post, I'll explain how you can use PRTG Network Monitor to monitor your entire Dell infrastructure, and thus ensure continuity. By using the appropriate sensors, you will never lose the overview and you will always be informed about the status of the systems.
Do you still have a classic server infrastructure at your company? With a stuffed server room and all data and applications on premises? I suspect not. Because cloud services that are affordable, easily configured and accessible from everywhere have finally arrived, and I'm sure at least some of your data infrastructure is already cloud-based. Which means you've surely come into contact with Amazon Web Services, the Google Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure. Or all three.
As of version 20.4.64, PRTG Network Monitor can get more insights into your Veeam backup jobs. By using two native sensors, Veeam Backup Job Status and Veeam Backup Job Status Advanced (BETA), you can monitor the total number of backup jobs in the last 24 hours and get detailed information for specific backup jobs. Both sensors support IPv4 and IPv6 and they have a very low performance impact. You need to be running Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager and the Enterprise Plus edition of Veeam Backup & Replication. This article explains three easy steps to start monitoring your Veeam backup jobs.
In this article, I will show you how you can monitor digital business processes using Paessler PRTG Enterprise Monitor. Basically, IT systems are always involved as part of a digital business process. On the one hand, there are servers and network distributors, in other words the infrastructure, and on the other hand the applications, for example: database management systems, programs or protocols. For the user, it is important to know if a certain service or process is running from an end-user perspective, like a web shop or a CRM system. In most cases, the user is not interested in the granular details of the application and infrastructure layer.
In a recent article, I wrote about how cybersecurity is one of the top challenges that industrial IT faces over the next few years. Aside from the exponential rise in cyberattacks, such as DoS, ransomware and trojan attacks, IT/OT convergence places industrial IT networks at more risk than in the past.