Are we looking at pure network performance, or are we concentrating on applications, monitoring and logging?
This question continues the fact-finding mission -- helping you to determine what the client's needs and priorities are. There are solutions around application availability and application bandwidth throttling, but you can also look at performance from the network itself. There isn't one single absolute answer.
Logging is an important way to examine network activity and events. For example, logging can reveal which applications are accessing the network, and provide insights about the bandwidth and other network resources being utilized. Logging can also be used to learn what individual users are doing, detailing bandwidth utilization and surfing habits. Logging can be conducted before a project to establish a baseline, then after the project to provide comparative figures.
Not all logging information needs to be presented to the client. The data being logged is often more robust than the data shared with the client. If the client is looking for better network performance, they are interested in statistical data around usage and speeds. When the interest is in monitoring, clients will want to know what's been blocked or what configuration changes have been made. These are two different sets of data.
Return to the network performance management FAQ guide and read the rest of Dave's expert responses.
