The five main qualities of a good solution for auditing IT infrastructure

Want, as you know, is not harmful. Many experts want to invest in sensible projects and working software solutions. Over the past 7 years, we have analyzed thousands of requests from our customers. We bring to your attention the 5 most important qualities that are worth demanding from the system for monitoring changes in IT infrastructure.

1. Functionality
   
   • It is considered good form if the change audit system can offer you the following set of functions:
     Simple and informative reports. It would seem that this is the whole point! But not every solution can automatically send reports by mail, according to a specific schedule.
   • Real-time alerts with the ability to filter events.
   • The value of "before" and "after" for each change. We look at the report - we see the changed parameters and their previous values ​​(also with deleted files - who, what, from where deleted).
   • Tools to recover deleted data or return unwanted changes
   • The ability to store audit data for a long time (7-10 years).
2. Ease of use
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   Ask yourself - are you ready to wait a few weeks until the engineers of your integrator install and configure a “solution”? It is good if the integrator has experience of similar installations. If not, get ready for the engineer to take your desk, chair, telephone line, and mail for a long time, connecting the manufacturer's specialists to the process.
   Installation and setup should be simple and clear, not requiring ritual dances with or without a tambourine. It is highly desirable that the manufacturer provides installation and initial setup documents, otherwise you will not be able to repeat all the tricks that the integrator had to perform in your arena.
3. Efficiency
   
   The more IT systems you can control with a single console, the better.
   The ideal situation is if the manufacturer offers control tools for applications and systems that do not write logs themselves. For example, these may be legacy accounting applications or Citrix terminal sessions . In such cases, it is correct to use a video containing also metadata, i.e. application name, window titles, processes. Thus, you can quickly go to the action of interest to the user, and therefore find the problem and fix it.
4. Scalability
   
   I will be brief (s). The reality is that even small businesses today use IT tools that have recently been available only to corporations. Therefore, you have the right to demand from the monitoring system stable and fast work in infrastructures from 100 to 100,000 jobs. Otherwise, as your organization grows, you will have to look at another solution.
5. Quality and localization support
   
   An important aspect that should be taken into account BEFORE you paid the money. The ability of the manufacturer to solve all the questions that arise at the pilot testing stage, to train your staff in basic functions and continue to be interested in the fate of the project, is never superfluous. It is good if the support team is at least in the same country as your organization. Ideally, the manufacturer’s R & D is located there as well - the shortest path to your wishes and feedback is provided to the developers.

That's all. Total 5 points - the necessary minimum, which is worth paying attention to when choosing the appropriate solutions.

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You can test our products for compliance with these 5 criteria directly on the site in an online environment , as well as download a 20-day trial version of the software to your computer.