See it all, from anywhere

Gain deep visibility and monitoring capability across all your supported 
Windows, MacOS, and Linux devices.

Control the Microsoft 365 cloud

Cloud Commander, N‑able’s multi-tenant Microsoft 365 management platform, enables automated provisioning, security, and management of all tenants, users and licenses.

diagram of multi tenant platform that can monitor and manage devices
MSP using software to monitor and manage network devices at scale

Manage at scale

N‑central scales to thousands of devices, giving your team the power to create the exact filters and views they need to cut through noise.

Become device agnostic

Monitor all types of network devices including Cisco, Fortinet, HP, Juniper, SonicWALL and more, and manage them with Secure Shell (SSH) and automation.

Get more on network monitoring tools

Frequently Asked Questions

What is network monitoring?

What is network monitoring?

Network monitoring is a broad term that refers to the practice of continuously visualizing and monitoring a computer to uncover any performance issues that might negatively affect a customer’s experience.

There are many different ways to go about network monitoring but paying special attention to SNMP and flow data goes a long way. You can use SNMP to monitor network devices and their functions and flow data can help monitor network traffic patterns and important usage information.

Network monitoring is purely diagnostic. If slow or failing elements are detected via network monitoring tools, those tools will notify technicians of the issue. After that, you can resolve the issues and prevent further disruption.

What are some common MSP network monitoring challenges?

What are some common MSP network monitoring challenges?

Network monitoring is not an easy task. Without the right network monitoring solution you can run into these top seven challenges:

  1. Poor network visibility
  2. Lack of network performance baselines
  3. An inability to pull actionable insights from network performance data
  4. Improperly configured devices
  5. An inability to scale
  6. Performance issues that go unaddressed because of human error
  7. Unpatched software

What are the benefits of network monitoring?

What are the benefits of network monitoring?

Network monitoring is an essential part of the job for MSPs and IT administrators, and the advantages cannot be overstated. Network monitoring offers you greater visibility into your managed networks, and that information can be invaluable. You can leverage it in many different ways, from preventing network outages to making smarter resource-provisioning decisions.

The benefits of network monitoring include:

  • Making it easier and faster for MSPs to resolve performance issues
  • Facilitating proactive maintenance
  • Identifying security threats
  • Reducing downtime
  • Helping MSPs keep up with service level agreements (SLAs)
  • Helping MSPs manage growing networks

How do network monitoring tools work?

How do network monitoring tools work?

Network monitoring tools can streamline and automate the most time-consuming and labor-intensive parts of network monitoring. How exactly a network monitoring tool will do this depends on the particulars of the tool you choose, but there are a few things all network monitoring tools do.

At the most basic level, network monitoring tools work by detecting, monitoring, and analyzing a network, typically by examining applications and devices in real-time. The tool then alerts the MSP to these issues via notifications and helps them drill down on the root cause of these problems.

Network monitoring tools also check the health status of systems on the network, check all manner of protocols, and measure top metrics like the uptime of a server.

What features should MSP monitoring solutions have?

What features should MSP monitoring solutions have?

A network monitoring tool should be easy to implement and configure, and it should be able to support devices from multiple vendors. This will help you scale up and make onboarding quick and easy. At the very least, your MSP monitoring solution should also have:

The best MSP network monitoring solutions will also have features that facilitate proactive maintenance so MSPs can prevent or resolve issues before their customers report them, mitigating potential performance issues or outages.

How does network monitoring work in N‑able N‑central?

How does network monitoring work in N‑able N‑central?

N‑able N‑central functions as a comprehensive network monitoring and management solution that offers MSPs everything they need for complete oversight and organization of their customers’ networks.

N‑central offers powerful network monitoring for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems, mobile devices, and virtual machines. You can easily check the hardware and software health statuses of all workstations and servers in a single dashboard.

If a performance issue is detected, the N‑central robust alerting system will notify you of it so you can troubleshoot and resolve issues quickly. Automated tasks and patches make maintenance faster and more efficient. Once the issues have been resolved, default and custom reports make daily monitoring easier.

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