How to Monitor Networks While On Vacation
At the SpiceWorld 2016 conference this week, Spiceworks turned its attention to networking issues that are getting more complex in the age of the cloud. To help IT administrators cope with those issues, Spiceworks unveiled a raft of free networking tools, including a Traceroute tool for identifying networking paths between an endpoint and a specific cloud service, and the beta release of an IP Scanner that discovers devices on the network in a matter of minutes. Both tools require an IT administrator to download Spiceworks agent software.
Other networking tools now being provided include heat maps for identify internet outages and service disruptions, a website availability checker, and a SSL Checker that helps IT administrators keep track of when SSL certificates need to be updated.
Tabrez Syed, vice president of products for Spiceworks, says IT administrators working at small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) are just now starting to appreciate the nuances associated with networking in the age of the cloud.
“We’re reaching the tipping point in terms of SMB cloud adoption,” says Syed.
One of the primary challenges those SMBs face, adds Syed, is understanding why cloud networking performance in one geographic region might be so different from another.
In general, Syed says Spiceworks is committed to providing IT administrators with tools that are easy to deploy. That’s critical in terms of providing IT administrators with tools that quickly provide a rapid time to value to members of the Spiceworks online community. In contrast, Syed says more comprehensive platforms take too long to configure and deploy. At the same time, however, Spiceworks also remains committed to make analytics available across a suite of tools that can be invoked via the cloud.
IT administrators generally have no shortage of options when it comes to IT management tools. But given the cost pressures IT organizations are under, free tools are always going to be hard to ignore.
