Understanding the needs of your network is vital to keep your network up and running. In the wake of the remote work era, it’s important to monitor and plan your bandwidth utilization. Recent surveys have reported a 45% increase in VoIP and video traffic as the need for telecommuting has doubled since the pandemic. Business Wire, a broadband provider, also reported a 30% spike in data traffic and a 50% rise in voice traffic since mid-March. So how do we get rid of network issues and enjoy hassle-free network uptime?

After a lot of research and customer-based reviews, we found three common reasons for unintended bandwidth spikes.

Three of the most common reasons for network bandwidth spikes are: 

  1. Backups scheduled during business hours
    It’s important for businesses to keep backups of their data, but scheduling such backups during business hours could cause unnecessary bandwidth spikes.
  2. Software updates that lead to network congestion
    Automated system or app updates can also cause bottlenecks and network congestion because of the amount of bandwidth they utilize.
  3. Network intrusions and malware attacks
    Hacking attempts and malware outbreak can also result in bandwidth hogs and network traffic.

There are hundreds of causes for bandwidth and network traffic spikes. Keeping a close eye on the entire network infrastructure and preventing network downtime or network outages is a tall order for any network administrator. This is why having a bandwidth monitoring tool is so essential—not just any monitoring tool, but an advanced monitoring tool that can provide real-time graphs to keep your bandwidth utilization in check.

Relying on an advanced bandwidth monitoring tool

Monitoring, visualizing, and analyzing the network environment and taking timely necessary actions is key to preventing network downtime, which is why so many industries rely on advanced monitoring solutions.

Monitoring bandwidth utilization not only allows the network administrator to gain a holistic view of the network performance but also helps in planning the bandwidth capacity accordingly.

The larger the scale of the network, the more critical it is for the network administrator to keep a close eye on what is happening in the network and find the 3Ws: when is there network downtime, where, and what is causing it. When the network infrastructure is complex, so is identifying, locating, and resolving the issues arising in them.

Even a single outage could wreak havoc and cost thousands of dollars to resolve. This is why implementing an advanced bandwidth monitoring tool that has a comprehensive view of the network’s needs is necessary for any organization.

Is it necessary to monitor bandwidth utilization?

Absolutely yes! When an organization is facing network congestion, network administrators have to work around the clock, pinpoint, detect, and resolve the issue immediately, because during downtime, time is money. Being watchful of bandwidth utilization is crucial to ensure optimum network performance and avoid downtime.

Monitoring bandwidth provides visibility into your network and offers an in-depth comprehension of what is happening in the network, which helps prevent potential network downtime, bottlenecks, and bandwidth hogs from impeding network performance.

Visualize, analyze, and centralize: 3 major components for optimum network performance

Consider an organization with hundreds of employees, guest users, and clients who access the network concurrently. How do you predict the amount of bandwidth utilization? And how do you provide the required bandwidth? 

7 reasons to consider using a bandwidth monitoring tool

  • To get insights on the actual availability of bandwidth

  • To gain real-time graphs and key metrics on data

  • To get historical data, identify the root cause, and conduct an analysis to detect potential malicious threats

  • To get better understanding of traffic flows, bandwidth hogs, and network strains through proactive monitoring, and set threshold-based alerts to prevent further network interruptions

  • To get in-depth analysis of the hosts, top talkers, and listeners

  • To monitor the amount of bandwidth utilized and what type of port and protocols are utilizing it

  • To customize policies, plan your capacity, and generate bills

Why NetFlow Ananylzer is a top-notch bandwidth monitoring tool

Manually monitoring all applications, keeping track of bandwidth utilization, and keeping devices up and running without any network downtime is a challenging task for any organization. But with NetFlow Analyzer, doing all this is easy. 

NetFlow Analyzer is a bandwidth analysis tool that monitors your network bandwidth and protects your end-user experience by resolving network issues before they turn into downtime. NetFlow Analyzer leverages flow technology to monitor network bandwidth in real time. The app-centric bandwidth monitoring tool helps you understand which applications are consuming more bandwidth and monitors the top talkers in the network to measure network bandwidth usage at a particular time.

NetFlow Analyzer is a one-stop solution for effective bandwidth utilization monitoring with its advanced monitoring techniques.

Here are 5 reasons why you should opt for NetFlow Analyzer to monitor bandwidth utilization

  • Helps you proactively identify bottlenecks and daily bandwidth utilization with the help of thresholds

  • Enables you to customize graphs and reports

  • Supports major vendors and advanced technologies like Cisco NBAR2, WLAN controller monitoring, deep packet inspection, CBQoS, IP SLAs, and more

  • Saves troubleshooting time with its advanced forensic reports

  • Helps to identify historical bandwidth trends for capacity planning and enables you to shape your traffic

 

ManageEngine NetFlow Analyzer simplifies bandwidth utilization monitoring and provides the needed visibility for business-critical applications.