Network Monitoring vs Performance Monitoring: The Power of Sonar 

Network and infrastructure monitoring is the key to keeping websites and applications online and functioning at optimal levels. Using a monitoring solution lets network engineers stay ahead of issues instead of scrambling to fix them after an incident has occurred. 

This blog will cover the ins and outs of performance monitoring, as well as Constellix’s Sonar Performance Monitoring solution and why it’s a superior choice for today’s modern organizations.

Sonar Performance Monitoring Standalone Service

Sonar is fully integrated with Constellix’s DNS service, but can be used as a standalone feature. This is a perfect option for organizations that need advanced monitoring, reporting, and automation features but are either locked into a contract or wish to keep their current DNS provider. As a standalone service, Sonar provides you with the same level of monitoring you would receive as a Constellix DNS customer. The bonus of combining our DNS and monitoring services is the unrivaled uptime, industry-leading speeds, and innovative solutions like IP filters, Geo Proximity, advanced ANAME technology, and Real-time Anomaly Detection.

Benefits of Constellix’s Sonar Performance Monitoring

Sonar Performance Monitoring is a smart agent-based monitoring solution. Built from the ground up to monitor our own enterprise network, it is designed to scale while protecting networks from service disruptions. Sonar doesn’t just report failed systems; it acts as a predictive service as well and is fully automated.

Its intelligent automation capabilities make Sonar a superior option for network monitoring and disaster recovery. Our service is lighting fast. So fast, in fact, neither you or your end users will notice a failed or underperforming resource. Sonar automatically updates your DNS records and points them to a healthy resource in your network. 

Sonar also includes the most advanced reporting features in the industry. Through our expansive real user monitoring (RUM) community, Sonar can report the response times from your actual users’ browsers. You can finetune and improve your traffic with data based on network/server(s), location, device, or by browser. Sonar also provides real-time snapshots of your resources from multiple sources.

Another feature unique to Sonar is its ability to provide visual traceroutes. This lets you compare traceroutes over time, which can help you pinpoint bottlenecks in your network and identify poor peering practices for ultimate traffic optimization.

Constellix Global Monitoring Locations

Sonar monitoring agents are strategically positioned around the world for optimal monitoring and traffic steering capabilities.

• Adelaide, AU
• Amsterdam, NE
• Atlanta, GA, USA
• Auckland, NZ
• Bangalore, IN
• Bogota, COL
• Bucharest, ROU
• Cairo, EG
• Cape Town, ZA
• Chennai, IN
• Chicago, IL, USA
• Copenhagen, DK
• Dallas, TX, USA
• Frankfurt, DE
• Fremont CA, USA
• Hanoi, VT
• Hong Kong, HK
• London, GB
• Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Miami, FL, USA
• Milan, IT
• New York, NY, USA
• Newark, NJ, USA
• Paris, FR
• San Francisco, CA, USA
• San Jose, CA, USA
• Santiago, CL
• Sao Paulo, BR
• Seattle, WA, USA
• Seoul, KR
• Singapore, SG
• Sydney, AU
• Tokyo, JP
• Toronto, ON, CA
• Vienna, AT
• Washington, DC, USA
  

How Sonar Performance Monitoring Works

Constellix’s Sonar solution uses advanced health checks to make smart, proactive decisions for your domains. Sonar checks can be configured for each of your resources. Options for checks are Web, TCP, DNS, ICMP (ping), and Real User Monitoring (RUM). When configuring your checks, you can also choose IP version and protocol type, check intervals, agents per interval, and verification policy.

Version: IPv4 or IPv6

Protocol: HTTP or HTTPS

Interval: 30 seconds to one day

Interval Policy: All agents, one agent per interval, one agent per region/interval

You can also select the number of agents per region and configure traceroute options:

Traceroute options: 

Disable, State Change + Periodic, or Every Check

Tip: For a more comprehensive breakdown of how Sonar Performance Monitoring can help your business, book a demo today!

What is Network Monitoring?

As the name suggests, network monitoring is a means of keeping track of how a network and its components are performing. Common monitoring options include:

• Resource health and availability
• Performance monitoring
• Cloud infrastructure monitoring
• Configuration checks
  

The main purpose of network monitoring is to prevent and mitigate outages, optimize traffic, and identify problems with speeds and efficiency. In today’s digital landscape, this is a must for any business with an online presence.

What is Agent Monitoring?

Agent monitoring is a means of surveilling networks and equipment. An agent collects performance metrics and data from servers and alerts network administrators of potential issues, poor-performing, or failed resources. 

Agent vs Agentless Monitoring

While lightweight, agentless monitoring solutions are less secure than their counterparts and don’t have near the robust metrics as an agent-based monitoring system. Depending on the monitoring service and your unique network, agentless monitoring can offer easier maintenance and deployment. The major caveat is that agentless monitoring is network-dependent. If the network fails, so does the agentless monitoring system. Furthermore, if an agentless monitoring solution is compromised, it affects the entire network, whereas agent monitoring is server specific.

Network Monitoring System vs Sonar Performance Monitoring 

The main difference between the average network monitoring system and Sonar is the automation and reporting features. If you use Constellix DNS services, you can also apply checks to your DNS records to help optimize your traffic. Our performance monitoring solution also runs on our bare metal infrastructure, which has the longest-running uptime history in the industry.

Sonar: The Ultimate Solution For Performance Monitoring

Every business needs a performance monitoring solution—especially corporate and enterprise-level organizations. Sonar is an industry-leading solution designed to keep your websites and applications online and running efficiently with smart monitoring and automation and advanced reporting features. With more than 40 global agents and our extensive bare metal infrastructure comprising 23 PoPs, 540 Gbps, and 3200+ peering capacity, your network is safe with Sonar.