Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

In 2026, the best network monitoring tools are Kentik, Datadog, SolarWinds NPM, LogicMonitor, Cisco ThousandEyes, Dynatrace, Auvik, Paessler PRTG, ManageEngine OpManager, Zabbix, OpenNMS, and WhatsUp Gold — spanning four overlapping categories: network intelligence platforms, full-stack observability, digital experience monitoring (DEM), and traditional network performance monitoring (NPM), including open-source tools.

Learn how Poller Checker helps identify polling issues, improve monitoring accuracy, and streamline SolarWinds troubleshooting. Discover key features, common use cases, and how to keep your environment running smoothly.

What happens when deep networking expertise meets low-level programming and a passion for invention? In this episode of Next-Gen Network Heroes, host Bob Slevin sits down with Liang Chen, Senior Network Architect at Texas Children's Hospital and a true innovator in network performance and visibility. With more than 25 years of experience in networking, plus advanced expertise in programming languages like C and Assembly, Liang has built his own next-generation traffic analysis platform from the ground up—designed to provide real-time, packet-level visibility at massive scale.

Integrating security data with observability data provides a comprehensive view for better threat detection and response. Security observability helps connect the dots between seemingly innocent events that, when correlated, reveal complex attack patterns. SolarWinds security products integrate into observability self-hosted, including Security Event Manager for log data and event correlation, Access Rights Management for identifying potential attack vectors, configuration management for compliance monitoring, and Patch Manager for tracking critical updates.

Sean Sebring and Chrystal Taylor chat with Josh Stageberg, SolarWinds GVP of Product Management, about the future of Agentic AI.

Get a quick walkthrough of the SWQL Admin Console and see how it simplifies querying, managing, and troubleshooting within SolarWinds environments. Review key features, practical use cases, and tips to help you work smarter and faster.