Optimise your on-premise network and boost efficiency with AKIPS
We’ve been around the world of on-premise network monitoring for many years. So we understand the critical challenge of optimising network efficiency and boosting performance while ensuring timely issue detection and resolution. All too often, we’ve seen how the lack of visibility in network monitoring can hinder engineers from promptly identifying potential problems, leading to network disruptions and downtime.
If you’ve been wondering how to best optimise your on-premise network, you’ve come to the right place. This blog will explore how AKIPS can help. Let’s take a look at how our network monitoring solution leverages network traffic analysis to transform on-premise network monitoring.
The challenges of network blind spots
Few challenges are as frustrating and detrimental as the lack of visibility over your network – which is probably why you’re reading this. You’ve likely experienced the consequences of inadequate visibility – downtime being the major one. It’s not merely the loss of connection that gnaws at network engineers; it’s the impact of downtime on business continuity, productivity, and user experience.
Imagine a scenario: a user loses internet connectivity, and the knee-jerk reaction is to blame the Wi-Fi. But without visibility, this assumption could be wide of the mark. The real culprit might lurk in a different corner – the core switch, the router, the firewall – each a potential perpetrator.
If you want to put a dollar figure on it, consider a fleet of autonomous trucks on mining sites, guided by a web of wireless connectivity. From the truck’s onboard systems to the intricate network that funnels data to a central server, each component plays a pivotal role. But what happens when network visibility falters?
Here’s where the consequences become really clear; what happens when those trucks lose connection? They literally stop in their tracks. In a fleet of 50 to 100 trucks, a single truck’s load can translate to around $10,000 of value. In the span of a day, each truck has the capacity to complete about 20 loads. Now, multiply that by the number of trucks in the fleet – we’re talking about staggering figures. In just a 12-hour window, the potential loss can mount to a jaw-dropping $20 million.
The cost of downtime is not just a matter of inconvenience – it’s a strategic imperative. Every moment of network downtime translates into a tangible impact on the bottom line.
The speed of AKIPS reporting and data
This is one of the features that makes AKIPS unique, because it’s not just about having the capability to detect and report issues instantaneously; it’s about the remarkable speed at which our solution operates. Comparing AKIPS against its competitors, it’s evident that AKIPS isn’t just about data – it’s about unmatched agility in accessing and interpreting that data.
Efficiency is a characteristic that’s built into the core of its design. Navigating within AKIPS, drilling into data, and sourcing information is a rapid process, giving you the ability to sift through vast amounts of data quickly. It’s a game-changer when it comes to tracking down the timing and origins of a network fault.
While the industry touts the concept of root cause analysis (RCA), AKIPS takes a different approach. Rather than being confined to the retrospective process of dissecting what went wrong, AKIPS delivers nearly real-time data about ongoing issues and events. Imagine this: if the wireless network for that fleet of autonomous trucks suddenly goes offline, AKIPS instantly highlights the problem. The system promptly notifies you that access points or wireless line control have faltered.
Unlike conventional text-based alerts, AKIPS gives you the ability to intuitively explore, analyse, and pinpoint the problem.
The width and breadth of supported devices
You’ll know how important flexibility is when it comes to network monitoring. AKIPS, from its inception, recognised this imperative and evolved accordingly. While it initially set its sights on supporting Cisco devices exclusively, our solution now caters for a diverse array of vendors – over 80 of them. But it’s not just about quantity; it’s about precision.
While the majority of our competitors offer generic reporting, AKIPS stands out by delivering precise and detailed reports for each supported vendor. This means you don’t have to settle for a broad-strokes approach. Instead, you can explore granular data specific to the devices in use.
Our development team incorporates additional vendors and new devices with every release. This means that AKIPS’ device support is not static; it’s a dynamic solution that moves with the times. Whether it’s established industry giants or new innovators, AKIPS embraces the diversity of vendors to ensure that its users always have a comprehensive toolkit at their disposal.
Unleashing polling power with AKIPS game-changing engine
The AKIPS polling engine is unmatched, having the capacity to poll and ping devices every 15 seconds. From the client’s standpoint, the impact is clear. Imagine having a sprawling network, brimming with 20k, 30k or even 50k devices. That’s not a problem for the solution’s polling engine, as it executes a 15-second polling interval for each device, ensuring that your network remains uninterrupted.
However, it goes beyond mere pinging. Enter SNMP polling – the engine’s mechanism for gathering performance and statistical data from the devices it monitors. This happens every 60 seconds. To put this into perspective, consider the competition. Many competitors may claim support for a similar number of devices, but their methods often entail spreading the load across multiple platforms. This inevitably results in increasing polling intervals to mitigate processing overhead. Here’s where AKIPS takes a different path. The engine interprets network data with speed and acumen. It’s really very smart; if a device consistently provides identical polling results over several iterations, the engine adapts. What this means is growth potential for your monitoring needs, all while ensuring zero performance impact.
Additionally none of this data is rolled up or averaged and the granularity is not lost when reporting.
Instant detection, swift action – AKIPS’ proactive approach
Beyond its features and capabilities, AKIPS has the ability to detect issues almost immediately, offering the right information to the right individuals in the nick of time.
AKIPS also offers integration capabilities, which extend to third-party tools, forming a nexus of efficiency. Integration into Microsoft Teams, Opsgenie, PagerDuty, ServiceNow, Slack and Splunk and an extensive API library ensures that AKIPS gets the data where you need it. By expediting communication and collaboration, AKIPS ensures that problem-solving becomes a streamlined affair.
Not only that, but the solution casts a wide net, actively participating in various data streams, so it can catch issues before they snowball into major disruptions. Consider NetFlow, a mechanism that provides invaluable insights into data flow across the network. AKIPS leverages NetFlow to detect anomalies – for instance, the unauthorised transfer of large data volumes like videos or file sharing. Such red flags trigger a pre-emptive response, allowing you to address potential concerns before they escalate.
Bandwidth can either facilitate operations or choke them to a standstill. You’ll be familiar with bandwidth hogs – applications, devices, or services that chew up available bandwidth. AKIPS has the ability to detect and monitor bandwidth utilisation with precision, identifying bandwidth hogs before they become roadblocks. This pre-emptive stance helps prevent network performance degrades due to congestion.
AKIPS also has the ability to empower proactive asset management. By scrutinising network statistics, AKIPS equips you to make informed decisions on capacity planning. For instance, when network infrastructure shows signs of being pushed to its limits, AKIPS provides the foresight needed to optimise your network’s performance.
Conclusion: Elevating network monitoring with AKIPS
AKIPS doesn’t just deliver reports at speed, it’s also incredibly swift in generating insights, allowing you to zoom in on minute-to-minute, day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, or year-to-year data with a snap of your fingers. Beyond reporting, AKIPS’ speed extends to the data flow itself, so you don’t lag behind in a dynamic digital landscape. AKIPS’ support for an impressive breadth of devices goes beyond conventional monitoring, offering you precise and detailed reports across over 80 individual vendors.
The polling engine is highly efficient, dynamically adapting intervals based on device behaviour. With the capacity to monitor SNMP data every 60 seconds, AKIPS isn’t just watching – it’s creating a range of network insights so you can stay ahead.
In essence, AKIPS is more than a solution; it’s a proactive approach that enables you to detect and address issues in real time, embracing the challenges posed by bandwidth hogs and network dynamics. With AKIPS, you’re not just monitoring your network; you’re monitoring its trajectory, ensuring uninterrupted operations and strategic growth.
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