Network Bandwidth Monitor: Eliminate Unnecessary Charges | Spiceworks

Most IT professionals know the value of network management, but many don’t fully appreciate the benefits of monitoring network bandwidth usage. If you only have basic network management tools without quality network bandwidth monitor features, my friend… you may be missing out on significant benefits.

Why is bandwidth monitoring important?

A network bandwidth monitor helps you understand how much data flows across your network, so you can figure out how much network capacity and internet bandwidth your business requires. A network traffic monitor can also help you avoid excessive spending and keep you from incurring broadband overage fees… not to mention help you select the best ISP or a data plan for your company’s needs (saving your company money and upping your chances at getting a raise?).

A device’s historical network usage over time (from the Spiceworks Inventory app)

Many Internet service providers (ISPs) enforce a limit or cap on the internet bandwidth a company can use. If exceed the bandwidth you’re allocated, you could unknowingly rack up significant and unnecessary additional charges. On the other hand, you might being paying for too much for excess capacity that you never use, but still pay for. Network monitoring tools help you find the balance that’s just right.

Even if you have a data package that fits the needs of your company, you should consider that the bandwidth from your internet provider is shared among your servers, applications and services, and devices. One particularly greedy service or employee could hog precious bandwidth by uploading or downloading large files (Netflix movies and torrents come to mind) or making excessive requests that degrade network performance for everyone else. Network bandwidth monitoring allows you to better understand data usage per device.

A network bandwidth monitor can also spot and alert you to network spikes at the switch level. Network saturation can lead to traffic congestion or packet loss that negatively impacts your company’s bottom line. Reliable bandwidth monitoring tools can assist you in avoiding and dealing with these problems, and they can help you more appropriately distribute bandwidth across the company network.

The Network Bandwidth Analyzer feature of the Spiceworks Inventory app (in the interfaces tab) switch shows traffic over time

Improving performance with a network bandwidth monitor

A network bandwidth monitor can also help you identify issues you may be having with your Internet service provider by providing historical performance data. While it’s not a huge deal to experience reduced internet upload or download speeds from time to time, if you’re experiencing reduced performance regularly, your monitoring software can help you troubleshoot the problem. Many monitoring tools can also track network latency, which impacts your network’s overall performance.