Next-generation network monitoring systems - critical requirements and design

The article deals with the monitoring systems and their usage in IT-infrastructure. The first generation of monitoring systems grew up from instruments made by software companies for their internal needs. Such systems currently fail to meet the actual business requirements. The number of used by common enterprises business applications and software services grows vigorously. It led to depletion of legacy systems' scaling abilities. Now business asks for new generation monitoring systems, which are flexible, able to process large-scale IT-infrastructures and has low operation costs. This article is devoted to revealing qualitative monitoring systems requirements by evaluation of several companies' business requirements. Those companies have various level of IT infrastructure integration in their business processes. We interviewed more than 50 tech specialists and managers and grouped requirements by IT-infrastructure scale. We formulated critical requirements for new generation monitoring systems using previously collected data and also opened access to best-practices of such systems implementation and usage. We also proposed feasible architecture of next-generation monitoring system.