Why single pane of glass monitoring kicks, well, glass

As an IT professional, you’ve probably heard one vendor or another say something to you about a “single pane of glass” monitoring, but what does it really mean, and why is it so important?

It can be helpful to draw a comparison in non-IT life. Do you remember those ads that started appearing from cable providers in the late 90s, early 00s that advertised a plethora of on-screen benefits for television viewers? Subscribers could get picture-in-picture TV, which allowed them to watch not one, but two shows at the same time without having to move a muscle. Meanwhile, should they be sick of being interrupted by the phone during their favorite programs, only to pick up the handset and hear a telemarketer on the line, caller ID on TV made it possible for viewers to keep their full attention on the TV, and still know who was interrupting.

Single pane of glass monitoring is kind of like those features from cable providers. As an IT professional, not only is switching among several views a pain, but it also leaves you susceptible to missing important information while your attention is elsewhere. Just like a plot pivot in a late night drama, that spike in network bandwidth use may have a sinister story behind it – and you don’t want to miss the action when it happens, or you’ll be left scratching your head as to the source of the problem.

4 single pane of glass monitoring benefits

A single pane of glass methodology provides system administrators with a consolidated view of the complete stack. Single pane topology displays the state, performance and health of the infrastructure in a unified picture. Specifically, single pane of glass monitoring lets IT teams:

1. Be self-sufficient

What’s great about a single pane interface is it is simple and intuitive, so everyone in the IT department can easily use it. IT administrators don’t need special skills to interpret the data, and there is no need to spend money on additional monitoring solutions, training or introducing new processes.

2. Gain insight and control into complex environments

When it comes to single pane monitoring, there aren’t any blind spots. The platform lets you dive into your network, hardware and apps and address potential issues within the system in real time. Operators can see deeply into the end-user’s perception (i.e. how quickly they’re able to access a mission critical app), so they know what they’re doing and what type of experience they anticipate and expect.

3. Eliminate silos and enable true end-to-end monitoring

The management console presents data from multiple sources in a format that’s easy to read and understand, enabling proactive monitoring across all layers of the infrastructure. As a result, IT pros can address potential problems before they disrupt the end user and lead to down time – which could cost the company big bucks.

4. Ensure peak performance

System administrators can identify bottlenecks and know when applications or servers are overloaded. Simultaneously, IT teams will have increased productivity because they don’t have to sit in front of monitors all day. If something goes wrong, they’ll receive an immediate email or text alert with rapid root cause identification.

Check out ZDNet’s report on how the recent Citrix acquisition of our management packs will give Citrix users complete single pane of glass visibility.