Network Performance Monitoring (NPM) has been around for years, and it may be receiving extra attention again as organizations strive to improve productivity and use network capabilities as a competitive advantage. A good source for understanding trends is the studies that are published by TRAC Research. I find the data from their surveys to be illuminating. For example, in "Network Performance Monitoring Market 2013 – Key Trends," we are told:
- 53% of organizations say that a top strategic goal of IT for network performance management is enabling networks to support new technology rollouts and major strategic initiatives
- 42% of organizations reported that improving the quality of user experience is one of their top strategic goals for managing network performance
Source: www.new.trac-research.com/news/blog/2013/10/25/network-performance-monitoring-market-in-2013-market-trends/
In a related study, "IT Performance Monitoring in 2013 – Key Market Trends," we find:
- On average, organizations are losing $72,000 per minute of unplanned network downtime, while 48% of organizations reported that, on average, they spend more than 60 minutes on repairing performance issues – per incident. Organizations that are able to effectively address key performance challenges are experiencing measurable business benefits, allowing them to better align their IT initiatives to support their key business goals.
NPM solutions constantly evolve as new technologies emerge. With the shift to mobility, BYOD and virtualization, the need for understanding and improving the quality of user experience from the Wi-Fi perspective becomes critical. This of course is 7signal’s strong suit, and I believe we’ll see an increased emphasis placed on end-user, application layer performance assurance and Wi-Fi optimization as mission critical WLANs are deployed.