Virtualization technology is rapidly spreading, with many enterprises having infrastructure heavily comprised of virtual machines, servers, and storage. These kinds of virtualization are created with technology called a “virtual machine manager” or a “hypervisor,” and this technology can (and should) be monitored and managed with other software. Using monitoring software like SolarWinds® Virtualization Manager or…

Being aware of how quickly your website’s pages are loading is crucial. Slow loading times upset existing users, increase bounce rates, affect search engine rankings, and have a serious impact on revenue. So tracking your site’s loading times, and understanding problems that affect the speed of your website, can be the difference between a failing…

If you’re working in a large enterprise or business setting, monitoring your network, servers, and workstations is essential for maintaining productivity, reputation, and service levels. With many networks primarily using Windows devices, finding high-quality Windows monitoring tools can be critical. In several companies, it’s not only employee devices using Windows operating systems—in many cases, the…

The security of network devices is vital to network security, but it’s easily overlooked when setting up network components out of the box. It’s common to purchase network devices and install them without customizing settings to suit the individual business situation, which can leave organizations open to security risks and network vulnerabilities. The importance of…

The IT departments in most enterprises handle myriad activities, both routine and rare in nature. The common goal of all IT teams is to keep their businesses running with optimum utilization of IT resources. However, ensuring high availability for business applications and monitoring network and infrastructure heath is no simple task. IT teams have to…

Network security predominantly falls into two different categories: on-premises and cloud-based. Enterprises choose which one they use to protect their system by considering several factors including individual needs and operational costs. Both approaches are concerned with keeping a network as secure as possible, but cloud security measures get the most scrutiny. So, which is it?…

There are literally hundreds of possible types of log sources around your environment and choosing which bubble to the top of your IT consciousness can be difficult. In a job where everything seems to be a top priority, understanding all the log types and sources available for selection can be daunting. In your environment, some…

With an increasing number of programming languages in circulation, the range of application monitoring tools is growing. This guide will specifically address Hypertext Preprocessor, better known as PHP, and the key features and advantages of some of the best PHP performance tools available. Before reviewing the PHP performance tools, let’s first take a look at…

Information Technology (IT) comes with plenty of acronyms and it’s not always easy to keep them straight. This is especially true when the definitions overlap, as with IT Services Management (ITSM) and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Understanding the ITIL and ITSM difference is important for businesses thinking about their approach to IT, especially if…

It wasn’t long ago when organizations cited several concerns and excuses to avoid putting their production workloads in containers. Things have changed, to say the least. With Docker, container technology has gained high acceptance, and users now download millions of container images daily. Docker containers offer an efficient and convenient way to ship software reliably,…

If a computer or device is overloaded or working too hard, its productivity and performance will be affected. By checking, monitoring, and testing server load, you’re better able to evaluate server resources and ensure they’re sufficient for running your applications and processes. Server load testing gives you insight into a computer’s limits, which allows you…

In the early days of networking, anyone who could write a program could write, send, and receive messages over the network. The only problem was these various programs often weren’t speaking the same language. If a company created a data transfer program declaring every session must begin with a certain message, the only companies able…

Ruby is a common programming language, ranked among the most popular in the world for tech startups, alongside Java, Python, SQL, and PHP. Many well-known applications and websites are built on Ruby, including Airbnb, Twitter, Kickstarter, CafePress, and Github. Ruby is an object-oriented language developed in the mid-1990s by Japanese creator Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto. Matz…

Businesses typically rely on network storage setups, in the form of either network attached storage (NAS) or a storage area network (SAN). These can be harder to manage and monitor than simpler storage infrastructures. In many cases, especially for larger businesses, storage performance monitoring software is a must. In this article, I’ll focus on SANs….

Using a hybrid of public and private cloud computing, or a mix of cloud and on-premises solutions, is a great option for many companies. This approach provides the best of both worlds, encompassing flexibility, security, performance, and more. The challenge comes with hybrid cloud management, as this approach is more complex than having everything in…

Different IT infrastructure monitoring tools are designed to offer visibility into particular aspects of your overall IT system, including applications, servers, logs, and more. The overall quality of these tools can vary, from excellent products built for business use to more limited open-source software. Their alerting capabilities vary as well, with tools offering a range…

Servers are essential when running a company, but it’s easy for those resources to sprawl. Server sprawl comes with having too many servers, which results in unnecessary complexity and inefficiency when those servers aren’t used to capacity. The issue doesn’t go away with virtualization, either. Virtual machine sprawl, or VM sprawl, is a problem for…

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems are used for collecting data from your entire network or enterprise environment. By scanning logs and other data from across your system, they then can analyze the event data to help determine security threats potentially facing your organization, so your security teams can appropriately prevent and respond to…

What is load balancing all about? Well, the truth is you can’t afford a web server overload—nobody can. A slow, faulty network can impact critical business services and result in a poor end-user experience. As external end users leave your site, profitability plummets. But external end users aren’t the only ones impacted. Every time an…

This guide is designed to help you improve your understanding of network switch management and switch monitoring. It will give insight into switch configuration management strategies and recommend SolarWinds® Network Configuration Manager as the best switch configuration tool available. What Is a Switch? Switches are key building blocks in a network. They exist to connect…

Databases are foundational to the operations of many modern businesses and organizations. They store information in tables, which authorized applications can then access, retrieve, or edit, depending on what information is needed and for what purpose. In practice, databases allow customers to see product details when shopping online and allow health care providers to keep…