System Monitoring Software continually watches websites' and applications' uptime and provide alerts when uptime becomes downtime. Beyond their basic function they often perform load testing (i.e. how much activity can a service manage at once), root cause analysis (i.e. what happened to cause issues), user monitoring (website visitor data is tracked for knowledge and analysis) and may be bundled into a larger suite of software for monitoring a network, servers, or managing IT assets.
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Systems Monitoring Software is an umbrella term that includes individual system monitoring tools. These tools are designed to manage a company’s IT system in a centralized fashion and can be operated remotely. System monitoring software is a core offering of many managed server providers (MSP).
These tools perform a variety of more granular functions that fall under network and application monitoring. System monitoring tools also monitor a range of devices including servers, storage devices, desktop computers, printers, and mobile devices. All of these monitoring activities provide notifications for technicians when there is a network failure or system malfunction. They also are able to generate reports which analyze the system’s performance data.
Additionally, system monitoring software is used for:
Taking hardware and software inventory
Configuration management
Patch management
Security management (such as virus and spam filters)
Backup and restore capabilities
As such, this category of software includes many discrete sub-categories, each of which has its own lists of products. Products in this category may also overlap with other software categories such as IT Infrastructure Monitoring, Configuration Management, and SQL Server Performance Monitoring Tools. Products listed in the system monitoring software category are generally portfolio products that perform a range of functions.
Although individual products may have a different range of capabilities, these are some common system monitoring software features:
Remote monitoring
Network device monitoring
Multiple server monitoring
Multi-device monitoring
Automated alerts and notifications
Patch Management
Service configuration management
Software and hardware inventory
Policy-based automation
Performance data reports
Customizable reporting
Data visualization
Risk analysis
Data backup and recovery
Antivirus and malware management
Administrative access control
Specific Features: System monitoring tools include features that cover a wide variety of tasks, including network monitoring and application monitoring. If your organization has specific needs in one of those two areas, closely consider how robust each system monitoring tool is in those areas. For some businesses, it may be ideal to use a fully-featured application monitoring tool or application monitoring tool.
Deployment: System monitoring tools and RMM software can be deployed on-premise, on the cloud, or in a hybrid fashion. RMM software is usually cloud-based, while system monitoring tools can be deployed on-premise. When comparing system monitoring tools, consider what deployment is ideal for your business and what tools can provide that deployment.
Security: System monitoring tools often come with security features like data backup and antivirus management. Not all system monitoring tools offer the same degree of protection. If your IT system contains sensitive data, consider system monitoring options with stronger security features.
System monitoring, or RMM, software is typically priced on a monthly or annual subscription model, per device being monitored. Plans can start as low as $10 per device per month, and increase to $50 per device per month for enterprise level solutions.
Although most vendors do not disclose prices on their website, quotes are available upon request. Many vendors also offer free trial versions of their products.