Introduction to MPLS and its Relevance in Business Networks

What is MPLS?

Importance of MPLS in Network Infrastructures for Businesses Seeking to Reduce Latency and Improve Reliability

Advantages of MPLS for IT Infrastructures

• Improvement in Quality of Service (QoS) From a QoS perspective, ISPs help manage different types of data flows based on priority and service plan. For example, there are different needs for a business area with a premium service plan or that receives a large amount of streaming (or high-bandwidth) multimedia content, and may experience latency in the network service. When entering packets into an MPLS network, Label Edge Routers (LER) assign a label or identifier that contains information based on the routing table input (i.e. destination, bandwidth, latency, and other metrics) and references the IP header field (source IP address), the socket number information and the differentiated service. Each core router uses tags to determine the most efficient path to its destination. That is, switching is being performed based on labels and their priority, so that data packets move throughout the network accurately and quickly. It should be noted that QoS metrics include parameters such as bandwidth, delay, jitter, packet loss, availability, and reliability, which reflect network features and performance, as well as traffic. What’s relevant about this is that MPLS supports QoS mechanisms that prioritize critical traffic, ensuring that high-priority applications benefit from bandwidth optimization and low latency.
• SLA Compliance in Distributed Networks In service management, compliance with the commitments set out in a Service Level Agreement (SLA) must be monitored. By using MPLS, it is possible to ensure network performance by enabling the creation of dedicated paths for data packets. This ensures that network performance metrics (latency, jitter, and packet loss) are implemented consistently. MPLS networks are also designed with redundancy and failover capabilities, which improve network reliability and uptime. The sum of this ensures that network operability remains operational and meets the availability targets specified in the SLAs.
• Bandwidth Usage Efficiency and Traffic Prioritization MPLS networks provide strong tools for monitoring and managing network performance, as tags are used to route packets through the network. Each package is assigned a label that states its path and priority. Compared to traditional routing, MPLS is more efficient as it allows traffic engineering to be implemented, helping network operators optimize data flow through the network. By controlling the paths that data packets take, MPLS can avoid congestion and ensure that high-priority traffic is delivered efficiently. MPLS also allows adopting (CoS, Class of service), which is a parameter used in data and voice protocols, critical for many business applications. This is because MPLS helps to classify and manage traffic based on predefined classes of service, according to their criticality and the level of service required. For that reason, service providers may address issues more proactively with MPLS and even easily scale to accommodate growing network demands without compromising network performance.

MPLS vs. emerging technologies such as SD-WAN

Comparison between MPLS and SD-WAN

How SD-WAN and MPLS can complement each other

• Profitability: SD-WAN can leverage lower-cost broadband Internet connections together with MPLS, reducing overall network costs while maintaining high network performance for critical applications.
• Network Performance: MPLS provides reliable, low-latency connections for mission-critical applications, while SD-WAN can route less critical traffic over broadband or other available connections. Both methods together optimizes bandwidth usage.
• Redundancy and reliability: Combining MPLS and SD-WAN offers greater redundancy. If an MPLS link fails, SD-WAN can automatically redirect traffic through alternate paths. This ensures steady connectivity.
• Scalability: By means of SD-WAN, your team can simplify the onboarding of new sites and connections. With MPLS you may manage high priority traffic, leaving the rest to be managed with SD-WAN. With that, you will be implementing scalability and flexibility to adapt to business needs.
• Security: Using SD-WAN, your IT and security employees can take advantage of the fact that it is common for it to include integrated security features (encryption and firewalls) that can complement the MPLS security strategy, as you would be adding an additional protection layer.

How Pandora FMS monitors MPLS networks

Pandora FMS features to monitor MPLS network traffic

• Bandwidth and Traffic Monitoring:
  • SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol): Pandora FMS uses SNMP to collect real-time data on bandwidth usage and traffic from MPLS network interfaces.
  • NetFlow and sFlow: These technologies allow detailed analysis of traffic flow, identifying patterns and possible bottlenecks in the MPLS network.
• Latency and Packet Loss Monitoring:
  • Ping and Traceroute Tests: Pandora FMS runs these tests periodically to measure latency and detect packet loss on MPLS paths.
  • Round-Trip Time Monitoring: Continuous evaluation of the time it takes for packages to travel from the source to the destination and vice versa.
• Service Level Agreements (SLA) Management:
  • Custom Alerts: Alert configuration based on compliance with the SLAs defined for the MPLS network, ensuring that any deviation is detected and managed immediately.
  • Compliance Reports: Generation of detailed reports that show the degree of compliance with SLAs, rendering informed decision making easier.
• Display and Dashboards:
  • Custom Dashboards: Pandora FMS allows you to create specific dashboards for MPLS networks, showing key metrics such as bandwidth usage, latency, and packet loss.
  • Interactive Network Maps: Graphic display of the MPLS network topology, facilitating quick identification of critical points and potential problems.
• Integration with Network Management Tools:
  • APIs and Webhooks: Integration with other management and automation tools, allowing fast and coordinated responses to incidents in MPLS networks.
  • Compatibility with Security Protocols: It ensures that monitoring is performed securely, protecting sensitive data on the MPLS network.

Examples of how to ensure Quality of Service and SLA optimization

• Traffic Priority:
  • Traffic Classification: By using defined rules, Pandora FMS can identify and prioritize critical traffic types (such as VoIP or real-time applications) over less latency-sensitive ones.
  • Bandwidth Allocation: Dynamic adjustment of the bandwidth allocated to different types of traffic to ensure that priority applications always have the necessary resources.
• Proactive SLA Monitoring:
  • Real-Time Alerts: Setting up alerts to notify the IT team when SLA indicators (such as availability or response time) fall below agreed levels.
  • Trend Analysis: Evaluation of history data to identify trends that may affect future SLAs, allowing for preventive adjustments in MPLS network configuration.
• Path Optimization:
  • Traffic and Performance Analysis: By using data collected by Pandora FMS, sub-optimal paths may be identified and MPLS routing reconfigured to improve overall network performance.
  • Load Distribution: Equal distribution of traffic between different MPLS routes to avoid overloads and improve bandwidth usage efficiency.
• SLA Detailed Reports:
  • Custom Reports: Creation of reports showing compliance with SLAs at specific intervals, providing a clear view of MPLS network performance.
  • Incident Analysis: Documentation of incidents that affected SLAs, making the identification of root causes and the implementation of corrective measures easier.

Use cases of MPLS featuring Pandora FMS

• Centralized System Monitoring: Pandora FMS can monitor multiple sites connected through MPLS from a central location. That is because from devices, data can be collected automatically from remote sources (for example, Telemetry) and then transmitted to a central location (in Pandora FMS panel) where they are analyzed for system and network monitoring and control. In business ecosystems, telemetry is critical to managing and managing IT infrastructure. This configuration enables comprehensive monitoring of network performance, ensuring that all MPLS links work optimally.
• Performance Tracking: By integrating with MPLS, Pandora FMS can track network performance metrics such as latency, jitter, and packet loss. This helps maintain Quality of Service (QoS) and ensure that critical applications receive the necessary bandwidth.
• Fault detection and resolution: Pandora FMS detects faults in MPLS networks and generates alerts in real time. This allows your team to identify and solve issues quickly and efficiently, minimizing downtime and maintaining network reliability.
• Traffic Analysis: With Pandora FMS, you may analyze patterns in MPLS link traffic. This helps analyze bandwidth usage, prevent bottlenecks, and optimize traffic flow.
• Scalability: Pandora FMS, from a single console, offers the ability to monitor MPLS networks at large scale, especially for organizations with very extensive and complex network infrastructures.
• Implementation of monitoring solutions and detection of security problems: Pandora FMS can monitor the security aspects of MPLS networks, ensuring that it remains safe and, in the event of a potential threat, issues are quickly identified and addressed.

Conclusion

• Quality of Service Improvement. MPLS supports QoS mechanisms to prioritize critical traffic. Pandora FMS can identify and prioritize critical traffic types over less latency-sensitive ones. From a console, you may measure bandwidth and network consumption in real time to ensure Quality of Service.
• SLA Compliance in Distributed Networks. Dedicated paths for data packets can be created using MPLS. This ensures that network performance metrics (latency, jitter, and packet loss) are implemented consistently. With Pandora FMS you may configure alerts to notify IT staff when any SLA indicator is below the agreed levels.
• Bandwidth Usage Efficiency and Traffic Prioritization. Compared to traditional routing, MPLS is more efficient because it can control and prioritize routes for data packets. Pandora FMS can help you identify sub-optimal paths and reconfigure MPLS routing to improve overall network performance.

Olivia Díaz

Market analyst and writer with +30 years in the IT market for demand generation, ranking and relationships with end customers, as well as corporate communication and industry analysis. Analista de mercado y escritora con más de 30 años en el mercado TIC en áreas de generación de demanda, posicionamiento y relaciones con usuarios finales, así como comunicación corporativa y análisis de la industria. Analyste du marché et écrivaine avec plus de 30 ans d’expérience dans le domaine informatique, particulièrement la demande, positionnement et relations avec les utilisateurs finaux, la communication corporative et l’anayse de l’indutrie.

Subnetting is the process of dividing a network into several smaller, independent subnets. Each subnet is a portion of the core network that follows a specific logic. We know the definition of the use of subnets in local networks that we could use in our company, y, since the benefits of using subnetting are several:

• Increase of network performance: The amount of data traffic on a network with subnets is reduced, as traffic can be directed only to the necessary subnet. This also decreases broadcast traffic (packets that are sent to all devices on the network), being able to send them only to specific subnets.
• Improved network security: Subnets may be isolated from each other, making it easier to establish boundaries between different network segments by means of a firewall.
• Ease of network management: Having multiple subnets increases flexibility in network management compared to working with a single network.

Process for creating subnets

Before you start creating subnets, it is important to know three key concepts:

• Original IP Address: This is the base IP address from which you will start to create the necessary subnets. IPv4 addresses are divided into classes (A, B, C, D and E). In LAN networks, Class A (10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255), Class B (172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255), or Class C (192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255) addresses are generally used.
• Subnet Mask: It indicates which part of the IP address corresponds to the network and subnet number and which part corresponds to hosts. In addition, it also tells devices to identify whether a host is within a local subnet or comes from a remote network.
• Broadcast address: It is the highest address of a subnet and allows simultaneous traffic between all nodes of a subnet. A packet sent to the broadcast address will be sent to all subnet devices.

Once these concepts are clear, you may begin to calculate the subnets.

• Choosing the source IP address: The choice of this source IP for a local network will usually be class A, B or C and will depend on the number of hosts you need on your network. For the example, we will use the class C address 192.168.1.0/24.
• Determining the number of subnets: You need to decide how many subnets you wish or need to create. The more subnets, the fewer IP addresses will be available to hosts. In our example we will create 4 subnets.
• Subnet Mask Calculation: Starting from the IP 192.168.1.0/24, where /24 indicates that we use 24 bits for the subnet, which leaves 8 bits for the hosts. This translates to binary as:
  11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000
  subnet bits (24) host bits (8)
• Borrowing bits for subnets: To create subnets, take bits from those available for hosts. The formula to calculate how many bits you need is:
  2^n >= N
  Where N is the number of subnets (4 in our example) and n is the number of bits needed. Here, n equals 2, since: 2^2 >= 4
• New Subnet Mask: By taking 2 bits from hosts, the new subnet mask will be:
  11111111.11111111.11111111.11000000
  subnet bits (26) / host bits (6)
  This translates to /26 or 255.255.255.192.
• Assigning source IP addresses for each subnet: Using the two borrowed bits, you get the following combinations:
  192.168.1.0/26
  192.168.1.64/26
  192.168.1.128/26
  192.168.1.192/26
• Calculating IPs for each subnet: For each subnet, calculate the first and last usable IP address and broadcast address:
  
  • Subnet 192.168.1.0/26:
    
    • First IP: 192.168.1.1
    • Last IP: 192.168.1.62
    • Broadcast address: 192.168.1.63
  • Subnet 192.168.1.64/26:
    
    • First IP: 192.168.1.65
    • Last IP: 192.168.1.126
    • Broadcast address: 192.168.1.127
  • Subnet 192.168.1.128/26:
    
    • First IP: 192.168.1.129
    • Last IP: 192.168.1.190
    • Broadcast address: 192.168.1.191
  • Subnet 192.168.1.192/26:
    
    • First IP: 192.168.1.193
    • Last IP: 192.168.1.254
    • Broadcast address: 192.168.1.255

Summarizing in a table:

To make the task of performing these calculations easier, there are online calculators such as this one.

Subnet-to-subnet communication

Although subnets may be part of the same local network, let us not forget that now each subnet is a different network. A router is required for devices on different subnets to communicate. The router will determine whether the traffic is local or remote using the subnet mask.
Each subnet connects to a router interface, which is assigned an IP from those available for hosts. This address will be the default gateway that we will set on the computers in that subnet. All computers must have the same subnet mask (255.255.255.192 in our example).

IPv6 Subnets

Creating IPv6 subnets is different and often less complex than IPv4 ones. In IPv6 there is no need to set aside addresses for a network or broadcast address. Considering that IPv4 sets aside addresses for the main network and the broadcast address in each subnet, these two concepts do not exist in IPv6.

Creating an IPv6 Subnet

An IPv6 Unicast address has 128 bits in hexadecimal format. These 128 bits are divided into the following elements:

• Global Routing Prefix: The first 48 bits indicate the portion of the network assigned by the service provider to a client.
• Subnet ID: The next 16 bits after the global routing prefix are used to identify the different subnets.
• Interface ID: The last 64 bits are the equivalent of the host bits of an IPv4 address. This allows each subnet to support up to 18 quintillion host addresses per subnet.

To create IPv6 subnets, just incrementally increase the subnet ID:
Example:

• Global routing prefix: 2001:0db8:000b::/48
• Subnets:
  
  • 2001:0db8:000b:0001::/64
  • 2001:0db8:000b:0002::/64
  • 2001:0db8:000b:0003::/64
  • 2001:0db8:000b:0004::/64
  • 2001:0db8:000b:0005::/64
  • 2001:0db8:000b:0006::/64
  • 2001:0db8:000b:0007::/64

Point-to-point networks

A point-to-point network is a particular type of network that directly communicates between two nodes, making communication between them easier, since each data channel is used to communicate only between those two devices.

Point-to-point subnets

A point-to-point subnet is a type of subnet with a /31 mask, which leaves only two addresses available to hosts. A broadcast IP is not needed in this type of configuration, as there is only communication between two computers.
These types of networks are usually used more in WAN than in LAN, and have the particularities that they are very easy to configure and at low cost, but they are not scalable nor their performance is the best, since all devices may work as client and server in a single link.

Subnet disadvantages and limitations

Although subnets provide several advantages, they also have limitations:

• Network design complexity: The initial design and configuration may be challenging, and it is necessary to maintain a clear outline of the whole network for proper maintenance.
• Waste of IP addresses: Each subnet needs to set aside two IPs (primary address and broadcast address) that cannot be assigned to devices. In addition, if subnets are isolated and all have the same size, unused addresses in one subnet cannot be used in another.
• Appropriate router required: A router capable of handling the infrastructure is required, increasing complexity in routing tables.

Despite these limitations, the benefits of subnetting often outweigh the disadvantages, making it a common practice for many companies to improve the performance and security of their networks.

What do the different parts of an IP address mean?

This section focuses on IPv4 addresses, which are presented as four decimal numbers separated by periods, such as 203.0.113.112. (IPv6 addresses are longer and use letters and numbers.)
Each IP address has two parts. The first part indicates to which network the address belongs. The second part specifies the device on that network. However, the length of the “first part” changes depending on the network class.
Networks are classified into different classes, labeled A through E. Class A networks can connect millions of devices. Class B and class C networks are progressively smaller. (Class D and Class E networks are not commonly used).

Network Class Breakdown

• Class A Network: Everything that goes before the first point indicates the network, and everything that goes after specifies the device on that network. If you use 203.0.113.112 as an example, the network is indicated with “203” and the device with “0.113.112.”
• Class B Network: Everything that goes before the second point indicates the network. If you use 203.0.113.112 again as an example, the network is indicated with “203.0” and the device within that network with “113.112.”
• Class C Network: In class C networks, everything that goes before the third point indicates the network. If you use the same example, “203.0.113” indicates the class C network, and “112” indicates the device.

Importance of subnets

Building IP addresses makes it relatively easy for Internet routers to find the right network to direct data to. However, on a Class A network, for example, there may be millions of devices connected, and the data may take time to find the right device. That is why subnets are useful: subnets limit the IP address for use within a range of devices.
Since an IP address is limited to indicating the network and address of the device, IP addresses cannot be used to indicate which subnet an IP packet should go to. Routers on a network use something known as a subnet mask to classify data into subnets.

What is a subnet mask?

A subnet mask is like an IP address, but only for internal use within a network. Routers use subnet masks to direct data packets to the right place. Subnet masks are not indicated within data packets traversing the Internet: those packets only indicate the destination IP address, which a router will match to a subnet.

Subnet Mask Example

Suppose an IP packet is addressed to the IP address 192.0.2.15. This IP address is a class C network, so the network is identified with “192.0.2” (or technically, 192.0.2.0/24). Network routers forward the packet to a server on the network indicated by “192.0.2.”
Once the packet reaches that network, a router on the network queries its routing table. It performs binary mathematical operations with its subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, sees the address of the device “15” (the rest of the IP address indicates the network) and calculates which subnet the packet should go to. It forwards the packet to the router or switch responsible for delivering the packets on that subnet, and the packet arrives at IP address 192.0.2.15.
In short, a subnet mask helps routers classify and route traffic efficiently within a large network, thereby improving network performance and organization.

Conclusion

Subnetting is a kay technique for dividing large networks into more manageable subnets, thereby improving network performance, security, and management. Although the process can be complex, online tools and calculators can make it significantly easier. Understanding and effectively applying subnetting is essential for any network administrator.

Olivia Díaz

Market analyst and writer with +30 years in the IT market for demand generation, ranking and relationships with end customers, as well as corporate communication and industry analysis.

Analista de mercado y escritora con más de 30 años en el mercado TIC en áreas de generación de demanda, posicionamiento y relaciones con usuarios finales, así como comunicación corporativa y análisis de la industria.

Analyste du marché et écrivaine avec plus de 30 ans d’expérience dans le domaine informatique, particulièrement la demande, positionnement et relations avec les utilisateurs finaux, la communication corporative et l’anayse de l’indutrie.

The infrastructure must be “invisible” to the user, but visible to IT strategists to ensure the performance and service levels required by the business, where observability (as part of SRE or site reliability engineering) is essential to understand the internal state of a system based on its external results. For effective observability, there are four key pillars: metrics, events, logs, and traces, which are summarized in the acronym MELT 

Next, define each of these pillars.

Metrics

What are Metrics?

They are numerical measures, usually periodic, that provide information about the state of a system and performance.

Examples of useful metrics

Response times, error rates, CPU usage, memory consumption, and network performance.

Advantages of using metrics

Metrics allow IT and security teams to track key performance indicators (KPIs) to detect trends or anomalies in system performance.

Events

What are Events?

They are discrete events or facts within a system, which can range from the creation of a module to the login of a user in the console. The event describes the problem, source (agent), and creation.

Event examples in systems

User actions (user login attempts), HTTP responses, changes in system status, or other notable incidents.

How events provide context

Events are often captured as structured data, including attributes such as timestamp, event type, and associated metadata, providing greater elements and information to the IT team to understand system performance and detect patterns or anomalies.

Logs

What are logs?

They are detailed records of events and actions that take place in a system. Also these collected data provide a chronological view of system activity, offering more elements for troubleshooting and debugging, understanding user behavior, and tracking system changes. Logs can contain information such as error messages, stack traces, user interactions, notifications about system changes.

Common log formats

Usually, logs use plain format files, either in ASCII type character encodings or stored in text form. The best known formats are Microsoft IIS3.0, NCSA, O’Reilly or W3SVC. In addition, there are special formats such as ELF (Extended Log Format) and CLF (Common Log Format).

Importance of centralizing logs

Log centralization ensures a complete and more contextualized system view at any time. This allows you to proactively spot problems and potential problems, as well as take action before they become bigger problems. Also this centralization allows to have the essential elements for audits and regulatory compliance, since compliance with policies and regulations on safety can be demonstrated.

Traces

What are Traces?

Traces provide a detailed view of the request flow through a distributed system. This is because they capture the path of a request as it goes through multiple services or components, including the time at each step. That way, traces help to understand dependencies and potential performance bottlenecks, especially in a complex system. Also traces allow to analyze how system architecture can be optimized to improve overall performance and, consequently, the end user experience.

Examples of traces in distributed systems

• The interval or span is a timed, named operation that represents a portion of the workflow. For example, intervals may include data queries, browser interactions, calls to other services, etc.
• Transactions may consist of multiple ranges and represent a complete end-to-end request that travels across multiple services in a distributed system.
• The unique identifiers for each, in order to track the path of the request through different services. This helps visualize and analyze the path and duration of the request.
• Spreading trace context involves passing trace context between services.
• Trace display to show the request flow through the system, which helps identify failures or performance bottlenecks.

Also, traces provide detailed data for developers to perform root cause analysis and with that information address issues related to latency, errors, and dependencies.

Challenges in trace instrumentation

Trace instrumentation can be difficult basically because of two factors:

• Each component of a request must be modified to transmit trace data.
• Many applications rely on libraries or frameworks that use open source, so they may require additional instrumentation.

Implementing MELT in Distributed Systems

Adopting observability through MELT involves Telemetry; that is, automatic data collection and transmission from remote sources to a centralized location for monitoring and analysis. From the data collected, the principles of telemetry (analyze, visualize and alert) must be applied to build resilient and reliable systems.

Telemetry Data Collection

Data is the basis of MELT, in which there are three fundamental principles of telemetry:

• Analyzing the collected data allows obtaining important information, relying on statistical techniques, machine learning algorithms and data mining methods to identify patterns, anomalies and correlations. By analyzing metrics, events, logs, and traces, IT teams can uncover performance issues, detect security threats, and understand system performance.
• Viewing data makes it accessible and understandable to stakeholders. Effective visualization techniques are the dashboards, charts, and graphs that represent the data clearly and concisely. In a single view, you and your team can monitor system health, identify trends, and communicate findings effectively.
• Alerting is a critical aspect of observability. When alerts are set up based on predefined thresholds or anomaly detection algorithms, IT teams can proactively identify and respond to issues. Alerts can be triggered based on metrics that exceed certain limits, events that indicate system failures, or specific patterns in logs or traces.

Aggregate Data Management

Implementing MELT involves handling a large amount of data from different sources such as application logs, system logs, network traffic, services and third-party infrastructure. All of this data should be found in a single place and aggregated in the most simplified form to observe system performance, detect irregularities and their source, as well as recognize potential problems. Hence, aggregate data management based on a defined organization, storage capacity, and adequate analysis is required to obtain valuable insights.
Aggregating data is particularly useful for logs, which make up the bulk of the telemetry data collected. Logs can also be aggregated with other data sources to provide supplemental insights into application performance and user behavior.

Importance of MELT in observability

MELT offers a comprehensive approach to observability, with insights into system health, performance, and behavior, from which IT teams can efficiently detect, diagnose, and solve issues.

System Reliability and Performance Improvements

Embracing observability supports the goals of SRE:

• Reduce the work associated with incident management, particularly around cause analysis, by improving uptime and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR).
• Provide a platform to monitor and adapt according to goals in service levels or service level contracts and their indicators (see What are SLAs, SLOs, and SLIs?). It also provides the elements for a possible solution when goals are not met.
• Ease the burden on the IT team when dealing with large amounts of data, reducing exhaustion or overalerting. This also leads to boosting productivity, innovation and value delivery.
• Support cross-functional and autonomous computers. Better collaboration with DevOps teams is achieved.

Creating an observability culture

Metrics are the starting point for observability, so a culture of observability must be created where proper collection and analysis are the basis for informed and careful decision-making, in addition to providing the elements to anticipate events and even plan the capacity of the infrastructure that supports the digitization of the business and the best experience of end users.

Tools and techniques for implementing MELT

• Application Performance Monitoring (APM): APM is used to monitor, detect, and diagnose performance problems in distributed systems. It provides system-wide visibility by collecting data from all applications and charting data flows between components.
• Analysis AIOps: These are tools that use artificial intelligence and ML to optimize system performance and recognize potential problems.
• Automated Root Cause Analysis: AI automatically identifies the root cause of a problem, helping to quickly detect and address potential problems and optimize system performance.

Benefits of Implementing MELT

System reliability and performance requires observability, which must be based on the implementation of MELT, with data on metrics, events, logs, and traces. All of this information must be analyzed and actionable to proactively address issues, optimize performance, and achieve a satisfactory experience for users and end customers.

Pandora FMS: A Comprehensive Solution for MELT

Pandora FMS is the complete monitoring solution for full observability, as its platform allows data to be centralized to obtain an integrated and contextualized view, with information to analyze large volumes of data from multiple sources. In a single view, it is possible to see the status and trends in system performance, in addition to generating smart alerts efficiently. It also generates information that can be shared with customers or suppliers to meet the standards and goals of services and system performance. To implement MELT:

• Pandora FMS unifies https://pandorafms.com/en/it-topics/it-system-monitoring/ regardless of the operating model and infrastructures (physical or SaaS, PaaS or IaaS).
• With Pandora FMS, you may collect and store all kinds of logs (including Windows events) to be able to search and configure alerts. Logs are stored in non-SQL storage that allows you to keep data from multiple sources for quite some time, supporting compliance and audit efforts. Expanding on this topic, we invite you to read the Infrastructure Logs document, the key to solving new compliance, security and business related questions.
• Pandora FMS offers custom dashboard layouts to display real-time data and multi-year history data. Reports on availability calculations, SLA reports (monthly, weekly or daily), histograms, graphs, capacity planning reports, event reports, inventories and component configuration, among others, can be predefined.
• With Pandora FMS, you may monitor traffic in real time, getting a clear view of the volume of requests and transactions. This tool allows you to identify usage patterns, detect unexpected spikes, and plan capacity effectively.
• With the premise that it is much more effective to visually show the source of a failure than simply receiving hundreds of events per second. Pandora FMS offers the value of its service monitoring, which allows you to filter all information and show only what is critical for making appropriate decisions.

Olivia Díaz

Market analyst and writer with +30 years in the IT market for demand generation, ranking and relationships with end customers, as well as corporate communication and industry analysis.

Analista de mercado y escritora con más de 30 años en el mercado TIC en áreas de generación de demanda, posicionamiento y relaciones con usuarios finales, así como comunicación corporativa y análisis de la industria.

Analyste du marché et écrivaine avec plus de 30 ans d’expérience dans le domaine informatique, particulièrement la demande, positionnement et relations avec les utilisateurs finaux, la communication corporative et l’anayse de l’indutrie.