Managing a data center is anything but easy given the multitude of systems and devices and the complexity of ensuring that each of these work at optimal levels always.
Besides the software and hardware, an organization also has to ensure that the cooling units are correctly wired and are working fine.
Such a mammoth list of housekeeping tasks can’t be done manually, so automation is required at many levels. This is where the Data Center monitoring tools come in handy.
Here is our list of the Best Data Center Monitoring Tools:
- SolarWinds Data Center Management Solutions – FREE TRIAL A comprehensive platform that gives everything you need for efficiently monitoring your entire infrastructure through a unified and single-view application and experience. Its scalable features make it easy to integrate with all areas of your tech stack. Start a 30-day free trial.
- Datadog Comes with a slew of tools that can be effectively and seamlessly combined to create an ecosystem for monitoring your entire infrastructure. Since each of these tools is standalone in its way, they come with advanced capabilities and can act as a robust monitoring system when the individual capacities are combined.
- PRTG Network Monitor This is a complete monitoring system that looks into every aspect of your IT infrastructure to give all the information you need about its health and performance so that you can make appropriate decisions.
- NLyte Software This data center infrastructure management optimizes your existing infrastructure and ensures that the existing resources provide good ROI.
- ManageEngine OpManager This is a well-known monitoring tool that can monitor multiple parameters such as CPU, memory, and disk utilization of physical and virtual servers.
- CloudMonix This is a cloud and on-premises monitoring tool that visualizes all your systems and resources in a centralized dashboard to empower you with the information needed for the correct decision-making.
- EcoStruxure This tool makes it easy for organizations to monitor and manage their critical IT infrastructure, regardless of whether it is located on the cloud, on-premises, or at the edges.
- Uila An application-centric monitoring tool that comes equipped to monitor the performance of different devices in your infrastructure, map dependencies among applications, stay abreast of threats and vulnerabilities, and more.
- Sunbird DCIM This is a well-known DCIM that comes with comprehensive capabilities needed for next-generation monitoring of an ever-growing IT infrastructure.
- Kaseya VSA A remote monitoring and management solution that proactively resolves IT incidents and gives complete control over the operations of your data center.
- Optimum Path Visual Data Center This DCIM software is designed to reduce operational costs and improve reliability and stability to boost the operational efficiency of your data center.
- Device42 This is a discovery and asset management tool that works well for cloud and data center applications.
These tools ensure that the data center runs efficiently and the maintenance costs are low. Further, it is abreast of the health of all devices in the data center and, through it, ensures the high efficiency of operations.
Given the many benefits that come with these data center management tools, it’s no surprise that most companies opt for one that best meets their needs. However, finding this right tool is not accessible from this multitude of choices, and this is why we have come up with a list of the best data center monitoring tools to ease your life a bit when making informed decisions.
Let’s now jump into the detailed specs of each of these tools.
1. SolarWinds Data Center Management Solutions – FREE TRIAL
SolarWinds has a suite of tools for Data Center Management that are designed to manage all kinds of IT environments, regardless of size and complexity. It is highly scalable and can be integrated with your infrastructure to provide a unified view of the health and performance of your data center.
Features
Let’s look at some of the features of SolarWinds Data Center Management Solutions.
- Centralized management and monitoring of the entire IT stack for the highest visibility
- Scalable and can be extended to physical, virtual, and cloud environments
- Can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, and even on Microsoft Azure
- Provides a simple and integrated experience
- Monitors multiple vendors for performance and availability
- Comes with automated reporting and forecasting
- Provides deep visibility into the performance of commercial and custom applications
- Sends real-time notifications on configuration changes
- Identifies and remediates problems in VMware, vSphere, and Microsoft Hyper-V systems
- Handles capacity planning and sprawl control
- Captures data from raw streams and converts them into a usable form
- Quantifies traffic and associates them with applications
- Collects and analyzes log information in real-time
- Highlights storage performance issues
- Finds IP addresses and helps to configure them on DHCP systems
- Proactively identifies and eliminates latency and distortions in networks
- Facilitates capacity planning
- Delivers automated and user tracking
- Monitors switch port usage
- Correlates changes in the infrastructure with performance metrics
- Troubleshoots performance issues
- Handles patch management
Pros:
- Generates automated reports and provides forecasting
- On detecting configuration changes immediately sends alerts to the admins
- Offers quick insights on data center functionality, health, and performance
- Detects and resolves issues in vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V systems as well as VMware in real-time
- Discovers IP addresses and aids DHCP systems in configuration
Cons:
- Small networks might find it too feature-rich and complex
Pricing: Contact the sales team for a quote.
Download: You can register for a free demo or get a 30-day free trial of Network Performance Monitor.
2. Datadog
Datadog offers many standalone tools that can be seamlessly brought together to provide a comprehensive overview of the state of your infrastructure. It also enables you to identify and troubleshoot a wide range of issues on your on-premises and hybrid systems.
Features
Some of the salient features you can get by combining the capabilities of these different tools are:
- Provides detailed visibility into the health and performance of all devices on your network
- Makes it easy to identify and fix issues in your infrastructure
- Comes with advanced graphs that help with forecasting and capacity planning
- Helps to identify the root cause quickly so that it can be remediated at the earliest
- Monitors cloud and on-premises devices
- Seamlessly integrates application stacks across the entire network
- Optimizes application performance
- Automatically collects logs and analyzes the same for deep insights
- Proactively monitors the user experience
- Correlates frontend performance with business impact
- Creates human-readable tags for data flow for improved understanding
- Build interactive dashboards in real-time
- Sends notifications on critical issues
Pros:
- Quickly locates and resolves a range of problems on your on-premises and hybrid systems.
- Offers better visibility into the health and network device performance
- Advanced graphs are supported to assist in capacity planning and forecasting
- Supports integration with application stacks across the network
- Automatically collect logs and examines them for insightful analysis
Cons:
- Offering a longer trial period for testing would be a better option
- Users may find it difficult to navigate to new areas
Pricing: There are many pricing options available, but the base pricing comes in three editions.
- Free
- Pro – $15 per month per host
- Enterprise – $23 per month per host
You can always add more features to this base plan based on your needs.
Download: Click here to get started.
3. PRTG Network Monitor
PRTG Network Monitor from Paessler is an agentless monitoring tool that can look through the entire infrastructure and monitor it for health and performance. It provides insights into specific metrics, based on which you can plan and customize tour stack to meet your business goals.
Features
Some of the prominent features of this monitoring tool are:
- Monitors all systems, devices, and applications in your IT infrastructure
- Requires no additional downloads or plugins
- Ideal for businesses of all sizes
- Determines bandwidth usage
- Monitors specific datasets and applications to get detailed statistics
- Centrally monitors and manages all cloud services
- Supports most prominent technologies
- Comes with advanced maps and dashboards that display real-time information
- Has flexible alerting options
Pros:
- Watches over devices as well as systems in IT infrastructure
- You do not need to download or install additional plugins
- Tracks bandwidth usage
- Offers flexible alert features
- Advanced maps and dashboards display data in real-time
Cons:
- Not suitable for non-technical users
- Challenging to understand advanced features
Pricing: The cost depends on the number of sensors you use. The pricing is as follows.
- 500 sensors – $1,750
- 1000 sensors – $3,200
- 2500 sensors – $6,500
- 5000 sensors – $11,500
- Unlimited sensors and one installation – $15,500
- 20,000+ sensors and multiple installations – Custom
Download: Click here for a 30-day free trial.
4. Nlyte Software
Nlyte Software is an infrastructure monitoring tool that works well on different environments, including cloud, on-premises, hybrid, and edge computing devices.
Features
The salient features of this tool are:
- Monitors end-to-end telemetry points to optimize power and thermal efficiencies.
- Reduces disruptions from maintenance cycles
- Predicts unplanned outages
- Optimizes workloads of applications
- Highly open and scalable
- Reduces costs and improves visibility
- Integrates well with different devices, including cooling and power systems
- Provides complete transparency in operations
- Balances critical infrastructure maintenance with workload availability
- Identifies anomalies in the performance of your data center devices
- Automates workflows to detect anomalies quickly
Pros:
- Works well on cloud, on-premises, and hybrid systems
- Minimizes delays caused by maintenance cycles
- Supports integration with cooling and power systems
- forecasts unforeseen disruptions
- Maintains a balance between workload availability and infrastructure maintenance
Cons:
- Lacks automated discovery of hosting center assets
- Complex
Pricing: To know the costs, call 650-642-2700 or email sales@nlyte.com
Download: Click here to get started.
5. ManageEngine OpManager
ManageEngine OpManager is an easy-to-manage tool that can monitor different metrics of a wide range of devices such as routers, switches, VMs, printers, storage devices, and more. Its capabilities help to drill down to the root cause and eliminate it at the earliest.
Features
The features of OpManager are:
- Monitors metrics in real-time
- Stays on top of the performance of physical and virtual machines
- Sets multiple thresholds and provides instant alerts for violations
- The dashboards are highly customizable
- Integrates more than 200 performance widgets to give you a comprehensive view of the state of your infrastructure
- Offers detailed insights to make it easy to identify the root cause
Pros:
- Real-time monitoring of data
- Sends immediate warnings on detecting violations.
- Monitors physical and virtual machine functionality
- Supports integration with 200+ performance widgets
- Detailed reports help quickly identify the root cause of the problem
Cons:
- Exploring all features may take time
- Topology-based maps need to be improved
Pricing: Click here to get a quote.
Download: Click here to download a free trial version.
6. Cloudmonix
Cloudmonix is a cloud and on-premises monitoring and automation tool that can monitor all your systems and resources and provide information on their health and performance through a single dashboard.
Features
Here’s a look at some of the features of Cloudmonix.
- Monitors the performance and availability of all devices and resources in your network
- Sends notifications on production issues
- Automates the entire recovery process
- Auto-scales resources in real-time
- Comes with out-of-the-box dashboards that provide comprehensive information
- Automates healing and recovery procedures
- Scales various resources to meet the demand
- Has many custom features tailored to meet the needs of MSPs and CSPs
Pros:
- Tracks performance and device availability
- Alerts on discovering production issues
- Scaling up resources to satisfy demand
- Real-time autoscaling resources
- Automates all aspects of the recovery procedure
Cons:
- Tricky at the beginning
- The user needs to invest time and resources to configure the monitoring infrastructure
Pricing: Cloudmonix comes in three editions:
- Starter – FREE
- Professional – $15 per resource per month
- Ultimate – $20 per resource per month
Download: Click here to start the free trial.
7. EcoStruxure
EcoStruxure is a data center monitoring tool that helps to manage and monitor critical infrastructure across environments. Its vendor-neutral architecture provides actionable intelligence to optimize performance and mitigate risk.
Features
The features of EcoStruxure are as follows.
- Regularly checks the status and performance of your on-premises and cloud infrastructure to maintain their uptime
- Provides expert remote monitoring service
- Manages alarms to send only the most essential and relevant alerts
- Ensures the continued availability of critical resources
- Improves efficiency and facilities improved data center management
- Proactively handles incidents
- It is vendor-neutral and works well across multiple platforms
Pros:
- Checks the status and performance of your infrastructure on a regular basis
- Expert remote monitoring support
- Deals with situations proactively
- Controls and prioritize alarms
- Maintains the resource availability
Cons:
- Require learning syntax of the script function
- Requires hours of training
Pricing: EcoStruxure offers three pricing editions, and they are:
- EcoStruxure IT Expert – $66 per device per year. This is a monitoring center that monitors all your data center devices.
- EcoStruxure Asset Advisor – $120 per device per year. This is a 24/7 intelligent monitoring service
- EcoStruxure IT Advisor – $256 per rack per year. This is a planning and modeling software that can manage data center inventory, capacity, and changes.
Download: Click here to activate your trial.
8. Uila
Uila is an application-centric data center monitoring tool that comes with advanced capabilities to monitor the performance of different applications, map dependencies across applications, stay ahead of cyber threats and vulnerabilities, and automate the root cause analysis.
Features
Uila comes with the following features.
- Deploys within just an hour and requires no additional installations
- It is a unified monitoring and troubleshooting platform
- Automatically maps dependencies
- Detects anomaly behavior
- Proactively prevents problems before it impacts business
- Generates different reports for different business functions
- Meets compliance standards
- Thoroughly monitors the performance of different devices
- Handles cyber threats
- Reduces the time for pre-migration assessment to the cloud
- Brings down unplanned downtime
- Employees tend to be more productive because they spend more minor time troubleshooting
- Performs full-stack monitoring
Pros:
- Map dependencies across applications
- It only takes an hour to deploy and no extra installations are necessary.
- Creates reports for various business operations
- Cyber threat management
- Thoroughly assesses the effectiveness of different devices
Cons:
- Limited functionality
- Confusing
Pricing: Contact the company for a custom quote.
Download: Click here for a 30-day free trial.
9. Sunbird DCIM
Sunbird is a popular DCIM with many advanced capabilities for monitoring different aspects of your network and ensuring that they work optimally for you.
Features
Here’s a look at some of the salient features of Sunbird DCIM.
- Accurately tracks all assets across the entire infrastructure
- Has the capability to control cooling and power requirements
- Manages and validates change requests and work orders
- Improves the overall efficiency and reduces the associated costs
- Its intelligent monitoring maintains the health of your IT environment
- Reduces downtime
- Has advanced visualization capacity, including the ability to generate 3D images
- Provides comprehensive security capabilities
- Comes with out-of-the-box reports
- Manages power and output connectivity
Pros:
- Accurately watches over assets throughout the complete infrastructure
- Minimizes downtime
- Fully controls output connectivity and power
- Generates out-of-the-box reports
- Keeps the IT environment in good health via intelligent monitoring
Cons:
- Confusing
- The licensing model is an issue
Pricing: Sunbird DCIM offers three pricing options:
- Power IQ DCIM Monitoring – $3.99/node/month. Ideal for power, energy, and environment monitoring
- dcTrack DCIM Operations – $13.99/cabinet/month. Best-suited for asset, capacity, and change management.
- DCIM Suite Bundle – $19.77/cabinet/month. Combines DCIM operations and DCIM monitoring for complete data center management.
Download: Click here to try this tool for free.
10. Kaseya VSA
Kaseya VSA is a unified remote monitoring and management tool that comes with complete capabilities to seamlessly stay on top of the different operations in your infrastructure.
Features
Let’s take a closer look at the features of Kaseya VSA.
- Seamlessly accesses and manages all your devices and endpoints
- Gives complete visibility into your IT infrastructure
- Installs and deploys patches across all the devices in your infrastructure
- Ensures that your infrastructure has the required uptime, stability, and performance at all times.
- Proactively resolves IT incidents
- Standardizes processes with policy-based administration controls
- Provides comprehensive automation for all routine activities
- Discovers devices in your infrastructure and gives you complete control over your inventory
- Works well across platforms
Pros:
- Full visibility into IT infrastructure
- Patch deployment across all devices
- IT issues are promptly fixed
- comprehensive assistance for all daily tasks is provided
- The policy-based administration controls help standardize procedures
Cons:
- The interface is a little slow.
- Requires purchasing add-on modules to access a few features
Pricing: Contact the customer support team for a quote.
Download: Click here for a 14-day free trial.
11. Optimum Path Visual Data Center
Optimum Path is a well-known DCIM software that combines data monitoring and management of your entire data center to reduce operational costs and boost its stability and reliability.
Features
The key features of this tool are:
- Helps with forecasting and capacity planning
- Takes the risk out of deployment and streamlines the entire process
- Provides a comprehensive 3D visualization of the entire datacenter
- Handles change management with work orders, tickets, and tasks, and a way to track the performance of each
- Generates reports and dashboards for monitoring KPIs and predictive analysis
- Provides advanced power monitoring
- Monitors multiple aspects such as humidity, overheating, etc
- Does a complete inventory of all data center assets
- Sends notifications and alarms to bring attention to important issues
- Comes with advanced features such as enhanced port mapping,
- All features can be customized to meet the needs of every organization
Pros:
- Minimizes operational costs and boosts stability
- Aids in capacity planning as well as forecasting
- Sends alerts and notifications in real-time to draw focus to critical issues
- Reduces risk and streamlines the complete deployment process
- Creates dashboards and reports to track KPIs and perform predictive analysis
Cons:
- Complex
- Does not work on certain devices or operating systems
Pricing: Contact the sales team for a quote.
Download: Click here for a free demo.
12. Device42
Device42 is a discovery and asset management tool for managing cloud and data center applications. They come with a host of features to transform and optimize your resources to achieve your business needs.
Features
Below are some of the features of Device42.
- Quickly allows you to see which addresses are connected to which ports
- Makes it easy to search and sort based on specific parameters such as IP addresses and subnets
- Gives you the impact of specific applications and devices
- Generates visuals of all the pertinent information
- Discovers dependencies
- Gives granular control over password management
- Works well across many devices and platforms
Pros:
- Search and sorting are easy with Device42
- Identifies dependencies
- Compatible with several devices and platforms
- Offers granular control over password administration
- Handles cloud and data center applications
Cons:
- Limited backup options
- Various steps need to be performed to complete a task
Pricing: Device42 is licensed as an annual subscription, and the cost depends on the number of devices and IP addresses in use. To get a custom quote, contact the sales team.
Download: Click here for a free trial.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, data center monitoring tools play a crucial role in boosting the productivity and performance of your data center while keeping your costs down. The many automated tasks performed automatically by these tools take a lot of pressure from your employees, thereby helping them focus on what they do best.
That said, not all tools are built equally, and this is why we have given a detailed list of features of a dozen tools to ease your job in finding the one that best meets your needs.
Related Post: Best Bandwidth Monitoring Software
