In short, IT monitoring is a system that monitors the operational status of IT software and hardware, including servers, storage, network devices, operating systems, databases, and more; It is different from our common video surveillance, which is often used to monitor people, public spaces, etc. If cameras are the eyes of video surveillance, then IT monitoring is the eyes of IT operations.

What isIT monitoring？

When it comes to surveillance, most people first think of the common video surveillance we use in our daily lives, such as private surveillance used to ensure home safety, public surveillance used to ensure public safety, and even our driving recorders, which are all common video surveillance. One of the most obvious features of video monitoring is that the front end of the monitoring is a camera, through which the video image can be output to the rear display, so that the monitoring scene can be viewed in real time, or stored in the hard disk. In case of any situation, the video can be retrieved afterwards to return the original scene facts.

The IT surveillance we are talking about today does not have cameras and does not output video footage.

The object of IT monitoring is IT equipment, also known as IT resources, which can be software and hardware facilities such as servers, network equipment, databases, storage, etc. The IT monitoring system monitors and provides feedback on the operation of these IT devices through a series of programs and instructions. For example, the IT monitoring system can be used to check whether the server connection is normal, CPU load, remaining storage capacity, etc.

More specifically, you can imagine a scenario, or an enterprise, which can be an Internet giant, a large telecom operator, or even 12306. In these enterprises, in order to ensure business stability, a large number of servers, storage, various middleware, network devices, etc. are usually deployed. Taking 12306 as an example, once there is an abnormality in the database, consumers may not be able to query remaining tickets, see ticket prices, or make payments. For large enterprises, widespread system failures can be catastrophic.

Another issue is that whether it is hardware or software, CPU、 Storage, database, and server failures are inevitable. Power outages, equipment abnormalities, or even a loose interface between devices can all affect the normal operation of the entire system. (Therefore, large enterprises usually also equip themselves with so-called backup systems, such as Plan B, etc.)

Why does operation and maintenance require monitoring?

Since faults are inevitable, the only way is to quickly solve the problem. Perhaps some people may say that it's simple. When a fault occurs, it's enough to find the fault point and solve the problem. As an operation and maintenance personnel who ensure the safety and stability of the system, they should possess such qualities.

That's true, but not entirely true either. This also involves another issue - the complex system architecture of large enterprises, numerous software and hardware devices, and relatively few operation and maintenance personnel. In large enterprises with thousands of IT equipment, it is almost impossible to rely solely on manpower to inspect and maintain IT facilities - helping operations personnel discover faults, locate fault points, and even prevent faults from occurring. This is the reason for the emergence of IT monitoring.

How can IT monitoring improve operational efficiency?

We start with the brief process of IT operations and maintenance - fault generation - fault detection - analysis of fault causes - fault location - fault resolution. In traditional operation and maintenance, the occurrence of faults is a force majeure, inevitable, difficult to detect, and heavily relies on the personal experience of operation and maintenance personnel; Traditional IT monitoring aims to alert operation and maintenance personnel of the cause of a fault when it occurs, helping them quickly locate the fault point and solve the problem, thereby improving the efficiency of fault resolution.

In fact, with the addition of emerging technologies such as big data and AI, contemporary operation and maintenance monitoring can not only quickly detect faults, analyze the causes of faults, and locate faults when they occur, but also predict the occurrence of faults, prevent them in advance, and further improve operation and maintenance efficiency.