Network,Monitoring,Program,Pay computer Network Monitoring Program: Pay or not to Pay?
----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes a Gone are those times when the companies and the organisations didn't need a hi-tech system to handle them. Owing to the considerable increase in the business sector and thus, an enormous increase in the complexity of the organisational struc
Today you can find a lot of programs that help systemadministrators to perform the companys local network monitoring process. There are both commercial(all of them have different functionality and therefore different price) and free software among them. Some managers ask:why do they need to buy the software if a company can save money and use thefree one? What is the difference betweenthe commercial and free network monitoring programs? Does using the freesoftware really help to cut down the companys expenses? 1. The functionality of commercial network monitoringprograms is much richer; they offer a widechoice of settings, monitoring checks, notifications, protocols, reports, diagrams,and other features. All this makes the companys network operation more stable,even if it is rather complex and include a lot of hosts. In comparison with thecommercial software, the free one offers only the minimal packet of settings toperform the monitoring of the most important network systems only. But everytechnician knows that there are no unimportant details in networks operation ofany complexity. Even the least important servers or databases downtime canlead to the serious downtime of the entire companys department.2. Any commercial network monitoring programs usercan be sure that he will get the qualifiedtechnical support in time by email or telephone. In addition, thecommercial software developers always pay much attention on bug reports and fixthem within the shortest possible period of time. The programs repute, the companysimage, and the developers prosperity depend on the operation of the software thatthey offer. Using a free version, you will be never sure for 100% that yourquestions will meet answers, and bug reports will be considered, or at leastnoticed. If some troubles happen, you will meet them face to face alone.3. Except fixing bugs, the commercial networkmonitoring software developers always work at improving its quality,functionality, and stability. Thus, the program is constantly in progress, andnew updates are always released. The free utilities might not be updated atall, and its version history might stop on the v1.0. 4. Often, the commercial program developers take intoaccount users feedback and can modify the current software to meet the customerrequirements, for instance, add new features. If the software is free, developershardly will make the individual modifications.5. The last but not the least point for using thecommercial network monitoring software is absence of frustrating advertising.It is obvious that the free software developers want to get profit as well. Thatis why some of them solve the problem by attracting a lot of advertisers. Advertisements can appear at the moment ofprograms launching or during its operation. It can differ from obtrusive bannersto frustrating pop-ups. This does not allow a user to concentrate on his workbut irritates him a lot. Any system administrator or IT manager should rememberthat the network monitoring is notonly the monitoring of all network devices physical availability or controllingthe services and processes operability. It is the detailed checking ofparameters important for the network functionality such as the CPU load and thewhole systems productivity. That is why the whole organizations operation andoperation of its employees and customers depend on the network monitoringsoftware that IT managers choose. When choosing between the free and commercialsoftware, remember, that if you buy cheaply, you pay dearly. In this particularcase, the price of mistake might be too high. You must decide for yourself,what is more important for you: to purchase modern and good quality software,but pay a little bit more, or save money and get a mediocre program without anysupport.
Network,Monitoring,Program,Pay