Network monitoring software: what it does and how to choose one
A practical guide to choosing network monitoring software: what to monitor, the criteria that matter, the real cost, on-premise deployment and an evaluation checklist.
Every network team reaches the same point eventually: users notice an outage before the monitoring does, or dozens of alerts arrive and none of them says where the problem is. Network monitoring software exists to flip that around — know first, find the cause fast, and plan ahead with data. This guide covers what good monitoring software does and how to choose one.
What does network monitoring software do?
A network monitoring system (NMS) continuously checks devices, links and services, stores what it sees, and tells the right person when something leaves its normal range. A complete NMS does four jobs:
- Availability: is the device or service up? (ping, TCP, HTTP)
- Performance: bandwidth, latency, packet loss, CPU and memory (mostly via SNMP)
- Alerting: timely, accurate notification to the right person
- Reporting: SLA, trends and capacity forecasts for management
What should you monitor?
| Layer | Examples | How |
|---|---|---|
| Core network | Core and distribution switches, routers | Ping, SNMP (interfaces, CPU, temperature) |
| Edge and security | Firewalls, internet and WAN links | Ping, SNMP, path quality (latency, jitter, loss) |
| Servers | Virtualisation, storage, application servers | Agent or SNMP for CPU, memory, disk |
| Services | Websites, portals, DNS, email | HTTP, DNS and TLS certificate checks |
| Facilities | UPS, temperature and humidity sensors | SNMP and custom sensors |
The criteria that matter
1. Alert quality, not alert quantity
The number-one reason monitoring projects fail is alert fatigue. Look for software that correlates related alerts over the topology (devices behind a dead core switch shouldn't page separately), folds flapping targets into a single alert, and detects anomalies against each metric's own baseline instead of fixed thresholds.
2. Notification channels your team actually uses
An alert nobody sees is worthless. Quiet hours, on-call rotations and escalation (if the first person doesn't respond, notify the second) matter even for small teams.
3. On-premise and independent of the internet
Many organisations — government, finance, industry — can't send network data to a cloud service. And a tool that needs the internet to activate its licence or render a map fails at exactly the worst moment. Look for full on-premise installation with offline licence activation.
4. Integration with documentation and configuration
Monitoring on its own shows half the picture. When an alert fires you need to know which rack the device is in, what it connects to and what its last config change was. Integrated platforms put all of that side by side.
The real cost of monitoring
- Setup: open-source tools are free to license but take senior engineering time to set up and template.
- Maintenance: who upgrades it, backs it up, and fixes it when the monitoring itself breaks?
- Licence model: per device, per sensor, or subscription — and how does growth change the bill?
- Adjacent tools: separate products for IPAM, config backup and traffic analysis multiply cost and complexity.
Evaluation checklist
- Can you install a trial on your real network?
- Does real ICMP (latency, jitter, loss) and SNMP work for all your vendors?
- Are alerts correlated over the topology, and is flapping detected?
- Does it install, activate and update without the internet?
- Are there SLA reports with PDF/Excel export?
- How are access control, MFA and audit logging handled?
- Is support response time committed in writing?
Conclusion
The best monitoring software isn't the one with the most charts — it's the one your team trusts, that points at the cause quickly, and that works in your real conditions. Monitoring in BehMon was designed that way: layered checks, noise-free alerting and full on-premise deployment.