{"id":435,"date":"2026-09-29T01:22:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T17:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.algodehumor.com\/blog\/?p=435"},"modified":"2026-09-29T01:22:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T17:22:31","slug":"how-to-use-monitoring-tools-for-it-infrastructure-48f5-77b8b9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.algodehumor.com\/blog\/2026\/09\/29\/how-to-use-monitoring-tools-for-it-infrastructure-48f5-77b8b9\/","title":{"rendered":"How to use monitoring tools for IT infrastructure?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hey everyone, let\u2019s cut to the chase\u2014if you\u2019re running an IT infrastructure and you\u2019re not using monitoring tools, you\u2019re basically driving a car blindfolded. I\u2019m from a Japanese IT infra supplier (yep, the one you might\u2019ve worked with for server setups or cloud migrations) and I see this all the time: teams wait until their server crashes or their cloud storage blows up, then they\u2019re scrambling to fix it at 2 a.m. instead of stopping issues before they even start. Today I\u2019m breaking down how to actually use these tools right\u2014not just slap them on and forget they exist\u2014because that\u2019s where 90% of companies mess up. IT \u30a4\u30f3\u30d5\u30e9<\/a><\/p>\n

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First, let\u2019s get one thing straight: monitoring isn\u2019t just about checking if a server is \u201cup.\u201d It\u2019s about collecting, processing, and acting on data from every single part of your infra\u2014from on-prem hardware to cloud instances, network switches, even the app that your customers use. When I first started in this game 10 years ago, all we had were basic ping tools that told you if something was on or off. Now? Tools like Prometheus, Zabbix, Datadog, Nagios\u2014hell, even newer stuff like New Relic\u2014can track every little metric: CPU usage spikes, network latency, database query times, even how much memory your app is hogging when it\u2019s a Monday morning at 9 a.m. The problem is, most teams set these tools up, stare at dashboards for five minutes, then ignore them. Let\u2019s fix that.<\/p>\n

Step one: Map your infra before<\/em> you pick a tool. I can\u2019t tell you how many clients come to me saying \u201cwe need a monitoring tool!\u201d but have no clue what\u2019s actually in their setup. One recent client had 17 on-prem servers, 8 AWS instances, 3 different network switches, and a legacy database that no one wrote documentation for. They tried to use a generic tool that couldn\u2019t talk to the legacy DB, so it was useless. So first, grab everyone on your team\u2014devs, sysadmins, even the office manager who paid for that random SaaS tool\u2014to list every part of your infra. Categorize them: on-prem, cloud, apps, network, security, even third-party services like Slack or Salesforce that your team relies on. That way, you can pick a tool that integrates with all<\/em> of it, not just the stuff you know about. For small teams, Zabbix is free and works for most basic setups; mid-sized teams might go with Datadog because the integrations are seamless; enterprise? Maybe Splunk, but only if you have the team to manage it. Don\u2019t overbuy a fancy tool you can\u2019t use\u2014start small, but don\u2019t skip the mapping.<\/p>\n

Step two: Set meaningful<\/em> alerts, not just \u201ceverything is broken\u201d alerts. This is the big one. I see alerts that go off for every little CPU blip (like when someone runs a backup at 2 a.m.) so the team just turns off all alerts. That\u2019s a disaster. Last year, a client had an alert set for \u201cdisk usage over 90%\u201d but it was triggering every time their nightly backup ran, so they muted it. Then, three days later, the disk hit 100% and crashed their e-commerce site right during a flash sale. Oops. So how do you set good alerts? First, establish baselines. Monitor your metrics for 7-10 days first\u2014what\u2019s normal CPU usage for your server? What\u2019s average network latency when no one is using the app vs. peak time? Once you have a baseline, set thresholds that are slightly<\/em> above normal, not the maximum. For example, if your database\u2019s query time is normally 100ms, set an alert at 200ms, not 1000ms. Also, categorize alerts by severity: critical (site is down, data is at risk), warning (something is off but not broken yet), info (just a heads up). And make sure alerts go to the right people\u2014don\u2019t send a critical server alert to a junior dev who\u2019s on PTO. We always tell our clients to have an on-call rotation for critical alerts, so no one gets burnt out from 3 a.m. texts.<\/p>\n

Step three: Don\u2019t just collect data\u2014use it for improvement, not just fixing fires. Monitoring tools give you so much data that you can spot trends, not just one-off issues. For example, one client noticed that every Friday at 4 p.m., their network latency spikes by 300% for an hour. They dug in and realized their finance team was running their monthly payroll export at that time, which was clogging the network. So they moved the payroll to Friday at 10 a.m., and the latency was gone. Another client used monitoring data to downsize their cloud instances\u2014they found that their dev instances only used 20% of their CPU 90% of the time, so they switched to smaller, cheaper instances and saved $12k a year. That\u2019s the real value of monitoring, not just fixing crashes. So every week, sit down with your team and look at the monitoring data\u2014look for trends, ask \u201cwhy is this happening?\u201d and use it to make your infra better, not just keep it running.<\/p>\n

Step four: Test your monitoring setup regularly, like you test a fire alarm. You wouldn\u2019t install a fire alarm and never check if it works, right? Same with monitoring. Every month, do a \u201ctest alert\u201d: simulate a server outage, or a disk full error, and make sure the right person gets the alert, and they can fix it in the time you expect. A few months ago, we had a client where the monitoring tool was set up, but the on-call contact number was outdated\u2014so when a server crashed, the alert went to a person who left the company, and their site was down for 6 hours before someone noticed. Don\u2019t let that happen. Also, update your monitoring rules when you change your infra\u2014if you add a new app, or move a server to the cloud, update your baselines and alerts. I\u2019ve seen a client add a new data warehouse and forget to update their monitoring, so the warehouse ran wild for two weeks eating up storage until their email got flooded with 1000s of alerts that they didn\u2019t see.<\/p>\n

Step five: For us as IT infra suppliers, we don\u2019t just sell tools\u2014we help you use them right. A lot of our clients come to us with a monitoring tool they bought but can\u2019t make work. Last quarter, we worked with a retail company that had a Datadog license but their sysadmin quit and no one knew how to set up alerts for their payment processing system. We mapped their infra, set up custom alerts for their payment gateway\u2019s transaction time, trained their new team on how to read the dashboards, and even set up a weekly report so they could see trends. The next month, their payment gateway had a minor latency spike, but the alert went off, their team fixed it before customers noticed, and they didn\u2019t lose any sales. That\u2019s the difference between a tool that\u2019s sitting there and a tool that works for you.<\/p>\n

Wait, let\u2019s be real\u2014there are pitfalls. One big one is \u201cmonitoring creep\u201d where you track every single metric and end up with 1000 alerts a day. We tell our clients to track the 20% of metrics that cause 80% of issues\u2014CPU, memory, disk, network latency, database query time, critical app performance. The rest? You can check weekly, not get alerts for. Another pitfall is ignoring security metrics. Monitoring isn\u2019t just about uptime\u2014you need to track failed login attempts, unusual access to data centers, things that could be breaches. We always set up security alerts with our clients too, because a lot of tools skip that.<\/p>\n

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Let\u2019s wrap this up. Monitoring tools are only as good as how you use them. Don\u2019t just install them\u2014map your infra, set smart alerts, use data to improve, test regularly, and if you need help, reach out to a team that knows their stuff. At our IT infra supplier, we\u2019ve helped dozens of companies stop pulling all-nighters for outages, cut their cloud costs by 20-30%, and make their systems more reliable. If you\u2019re tired of surprise crashes or wasted money on unused tools, let\u2019s connect for a procurement chat\u2014we can walk through your setup, help you pick the right monitoring stack, and make sure it works for your team, not against you. You don\u2019t have to drive blindfolded anymore.<\/p>\n

Improved operational efficiency<\/a> References:<\/p>\n

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  1. Prometheus Official Documentation: Monitoring Best Practices for Modern IT Infrastructure<\/li>\n
  2. Zabbix 2024 State of IT Monitoring Report<\/li>\n
  3. Datadog Guide to Setting Effective Alert Thresholds<\/li>\n
  4. Gartner Magic Quadrant for IT Infrastructure Monitoring, 2023 Edition<\/li>\n
  5. IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) 4: Monitoring and Event Management Practices<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    <\/a>
    SCSK Shanghai, the China base of SCSK Corporation, is one of the most experienced IT infrastructure service providers and suppliers in China and Japan, featuring advanced services and good prices.If you want to know more about discounted IT infrastructure services, please feel free to contact us for price list and quotation.Customized orders are also welcome.
    Address:
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    WebSite:     https:\/\/www.scskcn.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Hey everyone, let\u2019s cut to the chase\u2014if you\u2019re running an IT infrastructure and you\u2019re not using … How to use monitoring tools for IT infrastructure?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241,"featured_media":435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[398],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","tag-6abaa257-f668-00b8-43b9-77f5ce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.algodehumor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.algodehumor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.algodehumor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.algodehumor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.algodehumor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.algodehumor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.algodehumor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.algodehumor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.algodehumor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.algodehumor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}