{"id":6898,"date":"2020-11-26T13:58:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T12:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.obsidiansoft.com\/?p=6898"},"modified":"2023-09-27T11:10:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-27T09:10:02","slug":"the-evolution-of-it-monitoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.obsidiansoft.com\/en\/news\/the-evolution-of-it-monitoring\/","title":{"rendered":"The evolution of IT monitoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The report “Pasado, presente y futuro de la monitorizaci\u00f3n” explores the most relevant aspects of the history of IT monitoring and describes the concepts that have most influenced its evolution over time.<\/p>\n

If you wish, you can download the full report for free:<\/p>\n

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The following sections summarize the main ideas of the report, published in the second edition of the itSMF Spain magazine.<\/p>\n

The beginnings of IT monitoring<\/h2>\n


\nAt the beginning, IT monitoring was a way to check the availability of servers and the connectivity of devices. It soon came to be used in the areas of hardware and operating systems, among others.<\/p>\n

This type of monitoring, also known as device-centric, offers an individualized analysis of the status of devices. It compares the data obtained with pre-established parameters. If the values are not within these parameters, the tool generates an alert.<\/p>\n

However, device-centric monitoring has several drawbacks. Among them, the lack of context and global view or the generation of a large volumes of data are not always useful. Still, many companies continue to use this type of monitoring today.<\/p>\n

Later on, there was a shift toward specialization in monitoring, with different departments or teams managing different specific tools. These tools provide more details on concrete aspects, such as infrastructure or applications.<\/p>\n

Complementarily, tools that concentrate all the relevant information and generate “complex alerts” began to appear. With them, the term telemetry gained prominence. Telemetry encompasses the concepts of events, metrics, logs and traces, and it is defined as “the entire set of relevant data for monitoring, regardless of the tool that facilitates them and their format.”<\/p>\n

But this type of monitoring is not without its drawbacks either. For starters, specialization and decentralized management do not facilitate problem solving. Besides, although specialized tools generate a significant amount of information, that does not mean it is easier to understand and interpret, and it can lead to storage issues. Furthermore, this level of specialization is still missing a global view of all aspects monitored.<\/p>\n

As mentioned in the report, “the objective should not be to monitor many parameters, but to identify those that are adequate, meaningful and relevant, within a model that provides different levels of analysis.”<\/p>\n

ITSM Monitoring: Based on services and managed by process<\/h2>\n


\nITSM process and service monitoring offers an aggregate view not provided by the\u00a0previous types. In line with the key aspects of ITIL<\/a> and ISO 20000<\/a>, this type of monitoring puts the focus on services. Specifically, it verifies overall compliance with the service levels established in the SLA, regardless of the actual status of its individual components.<\/p>\n

\"Art\u00edculoThe level of aggregation inherent in this type of monitoring facilitates interpretation by business users. It also allows for a multidimensional analysis through the monitoring of the service levels of each process. In addition, it favors the identification of “cause-effect relationships”, offering a more predictive monitoring.<\/p>\n

The report highlights capacity management<\/a> and availability management as the most common ITSM processes in IT monitoring, explaining their main characteristics and the differences between them.<\/p>\n

Although this type of monitoring is far more mature than the previous ones, its main disadvantage is that there are no precise instructions, neither in ITIL nor in ISO 20000, on how to implement it. Therefore, the organization is responsible for the identification of key performance indicators (KPIs)<\/a> and the definition and implementation of a customized model.<\/p>\n

In response to this problem, BSM (Business Service Management) tools were born. These tools sought to satisfy the needs of the business, and they had a clear orientation to services and to management by processes. They also provided a systematic approach to ITSM monitoring.<\/p>\n

However, the life of BSM tools was quite short. Due to the difficulties associated with their implementation and the technological deficiencies at the time, their level of adoption was quite low. Finally, a report published by Gartner in 2016 declared them obsolete.<\/p>\n

Current trends in IT monitoring<\/h2>\n

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The report mentions several industry trends<\/a> currently affecting IT monitoring. Among them:<\/p>\n