There are many advantages of getting something for free. As well as saving money, you can also try a product for effectiveness before committing to purchase. This is why many software producer offer limited trials and artists allow free streaming of certain songs. By generating interest, they can hopefully attract more paying customers.
However, when a piece of software is free to use for an unlimited time, particularly in a market that is filled with paid alternatives, there are obvious question marks. The first of these relates to the quality of the product. After all, why would somebody happily produce something that they are then going to pass on without a charge and still take the time to ensure that it maintains the same quality as a premium version?
Whilst large Internet corporations like Google offer a wealth of free products to prop up their other services, when it comes to specialist network software the cheapest option isn't necessarily the wisest.
By and large, you generally get what you pay for. Whether you're buying a new car, food at the local supermarket or network monitoring software, there's a good chance that cutting corners is likely to lead to a reduction in quality somewhere.
The integrity of your network isn't something you generally want to be gambling with. Monitoring software essentially allows you to pinpoint any suspicious activity, locate potential weak points and keep a close eye on overall performance. If an issue does arise, you don't want to wait a couple of hours, let alone days to deal with it. This is where good quality, premium network monitoring software really comes into its own.
You won't have to rely on flimsy, generic monitoring systems that only begin to scratch the surface. Instead you will be able to get the whole story, hone in on potential issues before they are able to develop and track your network performance over time. If your system is lagging as certain times of day, or it has slowed down in recent weeks, you can start to explore the possible reasons why and look into potential remedies.
For instance, if your connection speed has dropped, it might well point towards an issue at your provider's end, a faulty server or may have been caused by an influx of new employees. Without the full data being made available, you may struggle to identify such issues and will then struggle to offer a sufficient response.
With any network, security is of paramount importance. Whether users are accessing emails, the Internet or just using the local network, there are inherent dangers. Email monitoring can ensure that attachments are properly scanned and no harmful items are opened. It can also highlight any abuses of the employee guidelines, including stealing data or sending private messages.
The same of course is true of online usage. It is important that employees are focussed on work and not accessing anything that contravenes company codes. However it is equally important that harmful viruses or malware aren't passed on undetected to the network. As this can occur simply by opening the wrong website, it's not a danger businesses can take lightly. Again, effective network monitoring software can track this kind of issue, whilst free alternatives may only provide the most basic of overviews.
So whilst it is undoubtedly cheaper to choose a free piece of software, it may not be prudent to do so. Network monitoring software is not an area of your business where you should be looking to cut corners. If your network goes down, so too does your productivity and, in all likelihood, your profits. Having a virtual eye in the sky can help to ensure that there are no abuses going on and no issues being created, helping to ensure a smoothly run operation.
No comments:
Post a Comment