Key Points:
- Understand Network Visibility: Network monitoring provides real-time insight into a network’s physical, virtual, cloud, and remote components.
- Follow the Six Monitoring Phases: Discovery, continuous monitoring, alerting, issue response, report analysis, and optimization.
- Enable Proactive Detection: Set continuous monitoring and automated alerts to identify performance degradation, bandwidth issues, and unusual activity.
- Analyze Telemetry and Reports: Review network performance reports and device telemetry to pinpoint recurring issues and improve network health.
- Choose Modern Monitoring Tools: Select tools with AI-based device discovery, real-time metrics, cloud visibility, and easy administration.
- Improve Uptime and IT Efficiency: Implement consistent monitoring practices to enhance network security, support hybrid workforces, and reduce downtime.
Network monitoring is vital for operating an IT environment at optimal performance. This is because organizations can improve operational efficiencies with a well-managed, well-maintained, and secure network.
While remote and hybrid work have made the network monitoring process more challenging, cloud-based tools have extended IT teams’ reach into home and remote offices to ensure employees are both secure and productive.
This article explains the 6 fundamental phases of network monitoring and how organizations can apply modern security monitoring practices in 2025.
What is network monitoring?
Network monitoring involves actively tracking a network’s components to ensure that the whole system is running efficiently. These components include not only a physical components (e.g, network interface controller NIC, router, switch, server, hub, modem) but also virtual components and processes (e.g., virtualized overlays, cloud and API-based telemetry, SD-WAN endpoints).
Tracking these parts can help network administrators discover and identify those that need attention before they cause issues within the network.
Optimize network devices and performance with actionable, real-time insights.
Network monitoring process: 6 phases
The most significant phases of a network monitoring process include the following:
1) Locate all key network components
Identify what network components you have and where they are. More importantly, look at how they’re connected; this insight will be useful if something goes down or an issue is detected. Map out these components to have a thorough visual of your entire network. Better yet, use a network monitoring tool with an AI-based discovery feature to automatically determine the locations and connections of your network’s components.
2) Actively monitor the components
Utilizing network monitoring software, set up the system to continually monitor the components of your network. Doing this ensures that no mishaps that can cause network malfunctions, or failure are missed. Active monitoring also helps you detect potential problems within the network, before end-users encounter these problems themselves.
3) Create alerts for component health and metrics
Set alerts that notify you about the status of your network’s components. Suppose a component is in poor health. Whether it isn’t connected properly or there’s an issue that slows down its operation, the alert can automatically prompt you to resolve the matter and, in the long term, help you be more proactive in maintaining the network’s overall functioning health.
4) Make a plan for managing issues
Set up procedures for how to respond to alerts when they’re received. What’ll you do if a device goes down, the Wi-Fi is weak, or there network bandwidth and connectivity issues? Planning this and other network troubleshooting steps in advance helps to equip your organization with the necessary knowledge and resources to resolve network issues when they arise.
For this kind of preparation, it’s helpful to understand the 8 common network issues and how to address them before they occur.
5) Analyze the reports
Most network monitoring software solutions feature the generation of reports that can give better insight into how your network – or even, by extension, your network monitoring process functions. It’s crucial to analyze these reports to see what’s out of place or what could be causing continual problems for your network.
6) Adjust the process as necessary
It’s challenging, even improbable, to create a flawless network monitoring process for your organization on the first go, so adjust it and make necessary changes as areas for improvement arise. Also, record the process and include it with your organization’s IT documentation, updating this knowledge as needed.
Why is network monitoring important?
Network monitoring essentially helps to maintain the health and functioning of your organization’s network. This process provides several benefits which include the following:
A visual of your network
When the various components of your network are all being monitored simultaneously, it creates an overall picture of the entire infrastructure’s health and connectivity. This visual can provide a lot of insight into the general state of your network functioning and smaller interactions between network devices. With this information. your organization save time searching for a solution to a problem since the issue can easily be identified.
Proactive problem solving
Without the help of monitoring software, many network issues go undetected until they start causing significant problems for end-users. Alerts can notify you of changes that would typically fly under the radar, making it possible for you to act before a more extensive problem starts to form.
Better network management
Continuous network monitoring means that slight changes to connectivity, spiking bandwidth, or declining health can be quickly detected, and immediate action can mitigate any adverse effects. This proactive management supports good network health and ensures that the network is operating at peak performance.
Check out our list of network monitoring best practices for ideas on how to get the most out your network monitoring process.
Increased network security
Monitoring your network will also improve its security. For example, using software to monitor a network and its devices helps you detect unusual activity. Security threats may go unnoticed initially, so the ability to identify a compromised area of the network or unauthorized activity means that you can quickly shut down those threats.
Network monitoring tools
There are several network monitoring tools on the market to choose from, and each will have different pros and cons related to the goals you have for your organization’s network.
Some key points to consider when deciding on a network monitoring tool are
- the ease of setup,
- administration,
- quality of support,
- customer service, and
- ease of use.
Here’s a list of the best network monitoring tools to get started on your research.
You can also check out our video guide on the 6 fundamental steps in a network monitoring process.
Automate your network monitoring process for greater efficiency.
Support organizational uptime and productivity
Overall, network monitoring is essential for organizations to better understand and proactively manage their networks. Establishing a network monitoring process within your organization’s IT environment not only guarantees improved network health but also boosts organizational uptime and productivity.
Read our article IT operations best practices for more ideas on how to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of IT operations in your organization.
NinjaOne’s network monitoring software offers real-time monitoring, SNMP monitoring, and Syslog to view network health holistically. It’s also built into NinjaOne’s RMM solution to guarantee smooth operations. Sign up today for a free trial.
