It’s a story many network administrators dread: leaving the office on a Friday afternoon with everything running smoothly, only to return Monday morning to a nightmare of system-wide failure. If you’re a network administrator, you know the quiet comfort in logging off on Friday, satisfied that all servers are operational, backups are complete and the network is running efficiently. It’s the moment when you finally let out a sigh of relief, looking forward to a stress-free weekend.

Progress WhatsUp Gold has consistently proven to be an innovative solution in the IT infrastructure monitoring sector. Recently, it emerged as an infrastructure monitoring leader in the prestigious Quadrant Knowledge Solutions’ SPARK Matrix. The SPARX Matrix recognizes products demonstrating exceptional performance, innovation and customer satisfaction through specified criteria.

Voice over IP, or VoIP for short, revolutionized telephony. Phones based upon old PBX-style switching and old-fashioned telephone wires are rare. Networks, the Internet and the IP protocol changed everything. Years, in fact, decades ago when Voice over IP started, the economics were astounding and the flexibility amazing. Sadly, the voice quality was often atrocious, which is a no can do for businesses of any sort. As network speed grew and voice technology improved, call quality improved.

It cannot be overstated how important a robust, well-maintained and customizable network is for your organization. They are the unseen infrastructure that enables communication and facilitates growth. Every organization has unique goals, challenges and workflows. A one-size-fits-all approach to monitoring often falls short and leads to time and resources being wasted trying to adapt work habits to the solution instead of adapting the solution to how your team best works.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a network map, dashboard, report, or other style of visualization is invaluable for IT pros. While network admins may live deep in the weeds, their bosses and other company execs prefer a high-level view that presents the big story.

There is no question that wireless networks are taking over. Offices may still have Ethernet cables to each cubicle, but they usually go unused. Wi-Fi is the new LAN. So many devices, tablets, smartphones and even some laptop-type devices, are now wireless only. Today, Wi-Fi is often the primary way end users connect. “While a wired Ethernet connection is generally faster and more reliable, it forces users to be tethered to their desks.

Virtualization is everywhere. We think of virtualization as beginning with PC-based servers then moving onto Linux boxes. But the origins are very different, going all the way back to 1968, when IBM invented virtualization with the release of the IBM System/360 Model 67 mainframe. We all know where it has gone since. PCs, storage and even networks are virtualized. Nowadays, enterprises and SMBs have a wealth of virtual devices and services they must manage and secure, with servers still leading the way.

What is one thing IT can do to make end users the happiest? Deliver a killer network with blazing speed and rock-solid reliability, that’s what. You can’t get that just by tossing in a bunch of bigger, faster pipes. Pipes are not the only answer. You need a holistic view of your network to build a complete and comprehensive plan to keep all your connections on top.

Ever try to fix a network problem with a blindfold on? Do you wonder why users are complaining about crashes and shoddy performance without knowing where to look? This sorry state is because you can’t SEE the network, which makes it murder to DO anything about it.

At Progress, we understand the challenges faced by IT teams in maintaining operational networks. Everything we do is to best serve those tasked with maintaining more seamless operations for an entire environment including network systems, servers, applications and services. We want to confirm that the greenest, first-day sysadmin can sit down in front of a product like Progress WhatsUp Gold and figure out how to use it in minutes.