Why You Need an Open Source Monitoring Solution
Monitoring the network of your business is crucial for many different reasons, and you want to make sure that you are always able to check in on what is most important to you. For example, what devices are accessing your network? What does your uptime looking like? What are your bandwidth utilization rates?
However, utilizing proprietary software may have limited you to picking and choosing which issues from your network you’re allowed to monitor, due to lack of available features or cost. Open source solutions, on the other hand, are some of the most cost-effective, powerful, and customizable tools of your business.
What Is a Monitoring Solution?
Before explaining why you need an open source monitoring solution, it helps to define what we mean by a monitoring solution. As Cisco explains:
Network monitoring provides the information that network administrators need to determine, in real time, whether a network is running optimally
Below, we discuss 3 main reasons why you need to have an open source monitoring solution.
Reason #1 You Need an Open Source Monitoring Solution: More Features, at a Lower-Cost
One of the biggest benefits of open source software is being able to build the solution that is appropriate for your business at a fraction of the price of your typical proprietary software solutions. If you ever felt restricted by what proprietary software tools were out there–maybe you saw tools that offered certain features you wanted but lacked others, or the price was out of your budget–open source is your best bet.
Building a monitoring solution that is tailored to your business needs and is cost-effective also helps you put that extra budget towards other matters you need to attend to.
Reason #2 You Need an Open Source Monitoring Solution: Security and Peace of Mind
When you see the benefits of being able to add custom features that you enjoy using at a cost-friendly price, you may think that there has to be catch: maybe open source solutions are not as secure as my proprietary tool I’m using?
Actually, open source solutions are incredibly secure, however. As Nahla from toolbox.com states,“There is much less open-source malware, any flaws are usually found and patched right away, and most developers [in the open-source community] actively collaborate on making programs and apps more secure by default.”
Additionally, you want to feel comfortable with the solution you’re using and the future of the solution within your business. Sometimes there are features that are working incredibly well with your current proprietary software, and before you know it your provider tells you that if you want to continue using that feature, you’re going to have to pay for a new “premium” membership to have full access.
With an open source monitoring solution, you’ll always have access to every feature that you want or need, as long as you want or need it. Because the open source solution was developed for you, you will always be in charge of what features get to stay, which ones can be phased out, and which new features you’d like to add.
Reason #3 You Need an Open Source Monitoring Solution: Scalability for Your Business
Finally, we understand that for many businesses, the goal is set on growing, expanding, and trending upwards in your ability to serve more customers and clients.
The great news is that open-source solutions are prepared for such growth!
If you started out with only a few devices accessing your business’ network, or only interacting with a few clients through your website–open-source solutions can be great for a small company to get started. The added benefit is that as your business grows, and you need to monitor a larger network of devices and access points, you don’t have to worry about needing to purchase the next level of a proprietary software program, or needing to switch to a bigger company’s product to meet your newly expanded needs. With open source, you can use the same tools you have been using, and can work with a qualified developer to add new features as you need them, or even features that don’t exist anywhere else.
Whether you’re getting tired of paying too much for your current proprietary monitoring solution, or you’re thinking of features that you wish you had access to, consider going open source for your future monitoring solution.
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