To track IP traffic flows and record metadata, IT professionals use network flow monitoring protocols and supporting solutions to collect and analyze data.

You have probably seen (or even been to) your company's data center. If not, chances are you have looked at photos of one from a major company like Facebook or Google. Why bring this up? Because when some folks think about the word 'database,' images of rows upon rows of servers holding data come to mind. Others think of the cloud, with zettabytes of data stored in rows, columns and tables.

In March 2021, Commander of the United States Cyber Command General Paul Nakasone testified before the U.S. Senate, summarizing a key organizational challenge, "It's not that we can't connect the dots; we can't see all of the dots."

Modern IT environments and networks are more complicated and distributed than ever before, spanning public clouds, private clouds, edge locations and on-premise data centers. What once worked well—manual or simple monitoring tools—can no longer ensure end-to-end visibility within complex networks. How can you monitor what you can’t see? Fortunately, you now have access to a new generation of monitoring tools designed for the hybrid network.

Avid PC gamers know that if you want optimal performance, you have to push your computer to its limits. And if your gaming “rig” is not properly equipped with a large interior fan, your PC can overheat, resulting in more than a few performance issues. It is the same for enterprise-level devices or pieces of hardware: overheating creates problems. One such enterprise-level piece of hardware (and arguably the most crucial piece of equipment) is a server.

Port monitoring is a necessary measure to make sure your network is running at an optimized level. For those unfamiliar with New England, many villages and cities began as fishing towns. These communities still do business on the sea, with multiple companies shipping out their products on massive boats. How do these boats gain access to the towns to continue doing business in them?

Understanding how to check your bandwidth speed can make all the difference when your Internet connections appear slower than usual. Sometimes, not everything works as expected. A video conference takes too long to load everyone's cameras; downloading a vital document starts at a snail's pace; webpages present the visitor with a low-resolution HTML version of their website. Why do these kinds of issues occur in the office?