IT supervision, the secret of super-proactive IT departments!

By Fabien Paupier

Published: October 28, 2024

What is IT supervision? Also known as IT monitoring, this process is used to control and steer the information system, which is central to the activities of the company's various departments.

And to be successful, any small, medium or large company is entirely dependent on the reliability of its IS, and in particular its IT infrastructure, which must be running optimally at all times.

But the slightest anomaly is likely to slow progress, cause a loss of sales, or even paralyze production. Unthinkable in an increasingly competitive society!

Let's take a closer look at what IT supervision is and how it can benefit your business 👉.

See all software IT Monitoring

What is IT supervision?

IT supervision: definition

IT supervision, also known as IT monitoring, is defined as a technique combining :

surveillance,
monitoring,
control,
alerts,
reports,

with the aim of alleviating problems linked to all levels of a company's IT operations, whether :

its system,
an activity,
an automated or computerized process.

Why do we do IT supervision?

The aim of IT supervision is to keep a constant eye on a company' s IS. The aim? To spot problems quickly, and so react as quickly as possible to avoid costly service interruptions.

In short, it's like having a vigilant watchman who makes sure everything's running smoothly, and even anticipates risks and incidents.

What types of IT supervision are there?

Technical supervision

Technical supervision focuses on the IT infrastructure itself, monitoring the performance and security of elements such as :

network : availability of online services, throughput, security, flow control,
hardware components,
operating system,
data storage systems, etc.

Functional (or service) supervision

This form of supervision focuses on the availability and quality of IT services delivered to users.

It therefore involves monitoring the performance (with indicators, alerts and probes) of devices such as e-mail, Internet access, file servers, etc.

Application monitoring

Here, monitoring focuses on the software used in the company.

The aim is to check that applications are accessible, work without errors and respond quickly to employee requests.

Business supervision

Finally, let's zoom in on business supervision, which is specific to each company.

This relates to the various business processes of a production entity, and aims to ensure that these operations are running efficiently, in line with business objectives and quality standards.

The 6 benefits of IT supervision

#1 Early detection of problems

With IT supervision, you can detect problems in your IT infrastructure at an earlier stage .

More concretely, real-time monitoring of your IS enables you to identify early warning signs of impending hardware or software failures:

performance variations,
system errors,
capacity overruns, etc.

As a result, IT teams take proactive measures to resolve these problems before they become critical and jeopardize the smooth running of the business.

# 2 Reduce downtime

The proactivity enabled by IT monitoring significantly reduces downtime for the organization's systems.

In other words, this supervision work guarantees operational continuity, thereby minimizing the financial losses associated with service interruptions.

😃 Not to mention the fact that keeping your business up and running, whatever the circumstances, contributes to customer satisfaction and your company's good reputation!

# 3 Optimize performance

IT monitoring also plays an essential role in optimizing IS performance, since it involves keeping an eye on your hardware resources in real time, such as :

processors,
memory
storage
network bandwidth, etc.

By identifying potential bottlenecks or overloads, teams can more effectively allocate the resources needed to guarantee the company's overall operational efficiency.

#4 Better resource management

By keeping a constant eye on its hardware, software and network resources, the company gains complete visibility of its IT environment.

In other words, it has the relevant data to make informed decisions about potential investments in new equipment or software licenses.

At the same time, organizations avoid unnecessary expenditure by identifying under-utilized or obsolete resources.

# 5 Improve security

At a time when cyber-threats are multiplying, IT supervision reinforces system and data security, by detecting potential threats and other abnormal behavior.

Teams become more alert to IT protection issues, and react quickly to mitigate risks.

In addition, monitoring contributes to compliance with current security policies and regulations, as it simplifies the application of necessary corrective measures.

#6 Increase user satisfaction

Finally, IT monitoring makes a significant contribution to end-user satisfaction, because, as we saw earlier, it guarantees the availability and performance of IT services.

Customers, staff and partners can therefore count on reliable systems, which in turn strengthens their trust in your organization. And in an increasingly competitive business world, that clearly makes all the difference!

Good practice in IT monitoring

Convinced by all the benefits of IT monitoring?

In order to correctly deploy such a device in your organization and fully ensure its effectiveness, here are a few best practices to observe 👉.

✅ Define clear objectives before jumping headlong into the project. What aspects of the IT infrastructure do you want to monitor, and what are the expected results?
✅ Identify the IT components and services that are critical to your operations. You'll need to focus on monitoring these essential elements first.
✅ Design a monitoring architecture that takes into account your network topology, geographical distribution of resources and redundancy.
✅ Automate real-time data collection and centralize it with specialized tools. This will make data analysis a whole lot easier!
✅ S et up customized alerts, so you can be notified immediately in the event of anomalies.
✅ Establish security policies to ensure that your supervisory information is protected against unauthorized access.
✅ Use your monitoring data to plan future resource requirements, avoiding bottlenecks.
✅ Draw up documents describing supervision procedures, including how to react to alerts and resolve problems.
✅ Make sure that the teams concerned are fully trained not only in the use of supervision tools, but also in all associated procedures.
✅ Regularly review previously deployed monitoring configurations. In this way, you ensure that they remain aligned with the organization's needs.
✅ Demonstrate responsiveness to alert triggers, a sine qua non for reducing downtime.
✅ Maintain transparent communication with stakeholders, keeping them informed of incidents and measures taken to resolve them.
✅ Think "feedback and continuous improvement". In other words, regularly gather feedback from IT staff and end users, with the aim of continuously improving your supervision system.

Which IT monitoring solution is right for your company?

The IT supervision provider

If you don't have a large enough IT team, you can call on an outsourced supervision service, via an IT outsourcer or MSP (for Managed Service Provider). They can monitor your IS either on-site or remotely.

To do this, you'll need an IT outsourcing contract.

But whether you outsource this task in-house or to a service provider, the use of supervision tools, also known as monitoring tools, remains essential.

Let's take a look at how such software can help you 🔎.

IT supervision software

Thanks to the use of dedicated software, installing an agent on a machine is quick and easy. It can be carried out without a hitch, on all computer media and all operating systems.

More concretely, this technology is used to anticipate and resolve anomalies:

each agent reports information to a single dashboard;
the management interface is used to control IT tools.

That said, which platforms should you actually turn to 🤔?

3 examples of proprietary IT supervision software

Atera is a comprehensive remote monitoring and management (RMM) software package. It automates professional services (PSA), manages patching and deployment, to oversee your IT infrastructures. This all-in-one tool has the advantage of being invoiced per technician.
RG System RMM is presented as an RMM module, to which the Data Backup & Restore and Endpoint Security options can be added. Everything is controlled from a single dashboard, to manage everything from supervision and antivirus deployment to automatic backups.
WhatsUp Gold gives you 360° visibility of your IT infrastructure, thanks to a unified dashboard and a host of advanced features (different monitoring protocols, multiple scripting languages, performance optimization, etc.). Its strong point: an easy-to-use, intuitive interface.

2 examples of open source IT monitoring software

Centreon lets you consult the status of services and machines. It also supports metrology, reporting, access to supervision events and advanced management of user access controls.
Nagios includes the following features: multiple inheritance, dependencies, notification escalation, service and host templating, active and passive monitoring support.