Australia has been one of the early adopters of cloud technology across both the public and private sectors, making it one of the most mature cloud markets in the world.
According to research by Gartner, while Amazon’s AWS still leads the market when it comes to infrastructure as a service (IAAS), Microsoft Azure is closing in, with its market share growing more rapidly than any other players in the Australian cloud space.
Further to this, the Australian public sector, including government agencies, is increasingly adopting Azure, with the platform being particularly popular among security-related agencies. This trend is attributed to Microsoft’s investments in creating a dedicated environment for government and critical infrastructure in Canberra.
With Azure Adoption on the rise, Australian organisations, especially SMEs with limited internal IT resources, are struggling with network monitoring, due to the complexity and scale of cloud environments.
This complexity stems from managing a variety of Azure services, ensuring security and compliance, and dealing with the dynamic nature of cloud resources. This leaves businesses open to potential security vulnerabilities, performance issues, and unforeseen costs. As a result, network monitoring becomes a daunting task. Teams are increasingly turning to Paessler’s network monitoring solutions to bridge this gap.
Let’s look at the challenges surrounding Azure monitoring, and how partnering with Paessler can help Australian businesses address these issues.
Challenges with Azure Network Visibility and Monitoring
Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, enables businesses and developers to build, deploy, and manage applications through Microsoft’s global network of data centres. Azure offers a range of services including computing, storage, networking, and artificial intelligence, catering to a wide range of business use cases.
However, while Azure is highly regarded for its capabilities in designing and building enterprise-grade solutions, like any complex cloud environment, its management presents a range of challenges for network and system administrators. These include:
- Complexity of Cloud Architecture: One of the key selling points of Azure is its wide range of service offerings and features. However, integrating these services for optimal utilisation requires configuring virtual networks, storage options and compute resources. Admins are faced with a daunting task for those unfamiliar with the Azure interface.
- Data Security and Cyber Risks: Major cloud adoption globally has presented increasingly sophisticated and complex cyber risks. Sysadmins working with Azure need to set up firewalls, manage identity access, ensure data is encrypted in transit and at rest, along with complying with the government and industry regulations in regards to data privacy and cyber risks.
- Cost Optimisation Concerns: Azure pricing can be complicated and many teams find themself over provisioning and underutilising their Azure resources. System admins need to constantly monitor and optimise Azure resources to control costs.
- Integration With On-Premises Infrastructure: Many Australian organisations are taking a hybrid approach to computing, combining on-premises data centres with Azure cloud-based services. This strategy offers several benefits but also presents admins with unique challenges in integrating multiple infrastructures, which often lead to data management, security and cost overrun concerns.
To overcome the above complexities, SysAdmins are increasingly looking to network monitoring tools to ensure the optimal performance and security of their IT infrastructure, as well as to facilitate efficient problem resolution and enhance overall network visibility. This growing demand is where solutions like Paessler’s network monitoring tools come into play, offering comprehensive and user-friendly monitoring capabilities for diverse IT environments.
Simplifying Complex Cloud Architecture Monitoring with PRTG
Paessler’s network monitoring solution, often known by its product name PRTG Network Monitor, can help administrators manage Azure cloud installations in various ways, addressing many of the challenges they face:
- Simplified Monitoring of Complex Architectures: PRTG provides a comprehensive and user-friendly interface to monitor complex cloud architectures. It can track the status and performance of various Azure services, helping admins understand and manage their cloud resources more effectively.
- Enhanced Security and Compliance Monitoring: PRTG can monitor network traffic and detect unusual patterns that might indicate a security breach. This aids in maintaining security compliance, as it provides real-time alerts and detailed logs for audits.
- Cost Management: While PRTG doesn’t directly manage Azure billing, it does help in monitoring resource utilisation. By understanding usage patterns, admins can optimise resource allocation to control costs.
- Performance Monitoring: PRTG excels in performance monitoring, offering real-time data on the health and efficiency of all network components. This is critical in ensuring that Azure-based applications and services are performing optimally.
- Disaster Recovery and Backup Oversight: The tool can monitor the status of backup processes and disaster recovery setups. It ensures that these critical operations are functioning as expected, which is essential for data integrity and availability.
- Scalability Monitoring: PRTG can track the performance and availability of dynamically scaled resources in Azure, helping admins to effectively manage scaling operations.
- Integration with On-Premises Systems: PRTG supports hybrid environments, providing visibility into both on-premises and Azure infrastructures. This assists in managing and integrating these systems seamlessly.
- Tracking Updates and Changes: By monitoring the health and performance of Azure services, PRTG can help admins identify and adapt to the impacts of Azure updates and changes.
- Detailed Network Insights: PRTG provides detailed insights into network traffic and performance, which is crucial for managing virtual networks and VPNs in Azure.
- Educational Resources and Support: Paessler offers extensive documentation and support, which can be valuable for admins dealing with the rapid evolution of Azure technologies.
Paessler’s PRTG Network Monitor addresses the myriad of challenges organisations face in network monitoring by offering simplified, comprehensive monitoring solutions that enhance security, performance, and cost management. It’s an ideal choice for businesses, especially SMEs, seeking an efficient and economic solution to manage their Azure infrastructure.
For a more detailed discussion on how Paessler can provide an easy-to-deploy and cost-effective solution for your organisation, sign up today to meet with Paessler and HAT Distribution. We can offer personalised insights and demonstrate the benefits of PRTG in optimising your Azure environment.
