Why relying on separate tools with separate insights is risky

A constellation of tools undergird network and application performance management for the typical enterprise today, especially in increasingly complex network environments that include hybrid cloud architectures, virtual machines and IoT devices. While having a range of performance monitoring tools enables network engineers to examine the dynamics of the network from several perspectives, it also creates a problem: lack of unified observability. 

The tools that network engineers typically use to monitor performance are many. They include network monitoring tools, bandwidth analyzers, performance testing tools, packet sniffers, network traffic generators, and network configuration management tools, among others. This doesn’t touch on the tools used for security management, either.

To gauge and fine-tune performance, network engineers flip between these tools and mentally aggregate this data to get a full sense for network performance and where issues may exist. Watch a network engineer work, and this voodoo looks impressive.

The reliance on separate tools for performance management might be necessary, and it does enable network engineers to see performance from many different perspectives. But it also is risky.

The advantage of multiple tools for performance monitoring

Before looking at the advantage of relying on multiple tools for network and application performance monitoring, let’s acknowledge the necessity of multiple tools: With the complexity of modern enterprise network architectures, it is functionally impossible for a single tool to bring all the data needed for network performance management.

It also isn’t possible to rely on a single tool because proprietary technologies prohibit it. While it is possible from a technical perspective for all cloud services and networking gear to pool data, the reality is that proprietary walled gardens limit the actual pooling of data in many cases. With the use of the public cloud, for instance, performance data and measurement tools often are limited to what the vendor provides. This necessitates the use of multiple tools for performance management.

There is an advantage from using multiple tools for network performance monitoring, however. Through the use of multiple tools, network engineers can correlate performance data and look at network dynamics from several different perspectives. Relying on a single tool for network and application performance management would be risky, because it might not encapsulate the full dynamics of network performance and could lead to an incomplete understanding of network dynamics.

But relying on multiple tools, each with separate insights, also comes with a big disadvantage.

The major disadvantage of multiple tools for performance monitoring

The problem with relying on multiple tools for network and application performance management is a lack of unified observability.

Collectively, the range of performance monitoring tools used by network engineers paint a full picture of network health and performance dynamics. What is lacking by the use of separate tools that each bring separate insights is a unified picture of overall network performance dynamics and how they interrelate.

Network engineers mentally create this overall picture and tease out the dynamics, but this is inefficient and leaves plenty of room for error. And as network architectures get increasingly complex, grasping the nuances of an enterprise’s network and application performance dynamics through this mental juggling act becomes unsustainable.

There are just too many variables now for effectively correlating the data from multiple tools and spotting all the subtle nuances needed for optimal performance management.

Why network engineers need unified observability

While performance data might still come from multiple tools, a unified view that captures the full range of network and application performance dynamics brings several advantages.

Foremost among those advantages is increased visibility. Unified observability provides a comprehensive view of system performance, including application health, infrastructure metrics, and network traffic, which helps to identify and diagnose performance issues more quickly and accurately.

By having a unified view, network engineers also improve decision-making. Instead of insights that come from a siloed set of data, unified observability enables a holistic view of performance for insights that take into account the full range of performance dynamics.

Unified observability reduces complexity, which leads to more efficient performance management. A unified observability approach simplifies the management of complex distributed systems by providing a single platform for monitoring and analysis. This can reduce the time and effort required to manage and troubleshoot performance issues.

With a single view that captures all network and application dynamics, businesses can also increase collaboration between performance and security teams by more effectively sharing data. Today, performance and security often are linked.

Get the best of both worlds with Accedian Skylight

Reliance on a single performance monitoring tool is neither possible nor advisable. But businesses can get the best of both worlds with Accedian Skylight.

Skylight is a network and application performance management solution that captures network traffic data end-to-end with lightweight virtual sensors, then collects this data in a central web-based dashboard for easy observability and analysis.

Skylight enables businesses to feed third-party data sources into this dashboard, correlating traffic data with third-party tools and data sources for an even more complete picture of network and performance dynamics. This brings together the data silos that exist through proprietary systems and separate tools, and enables a complete, unified view of network and application performance dynamics.
If your organization is ready to move beyond separate tools with separate insights, schedule a custom demo of our Skylight solutions today.