Infrastructure monitoring refers to the process of monitoring and managing the performance, availability, and health of various components in an IT infrastructure. It involves collecting and analyzing data from servers, networks, databases, applications, and other infrastructure elements to ensure their smooth operation.

Infrastructure monitoring works by deploying monitoring tools or software agents that continuously collect data from infrastructure components. These tools use various techniques such as polling, log parsing, and event-based monitoring to gather information about the infrastructure's performance metrics, resource utilization, and potential issues.

Once the data is collected, it is processed and analyzed to generate meaningful insights and visualizations. This helps IT teams identify bottlenecks, troubleshoot problems, and make informed decisions to optimize the infrastructure's performance and improve overall reliability.

There are several use cases for infrastructure monitoring:

1. Proactive issue detection and resolution: Infrastructure monitoring allows IT teams to identify potential issues before they impact end-users. For example, if a server's CPU utilization is consistently high, it could indicate a performance bottleneck that needs attention.
2. Capacity planning: By monitoring resource utilization trends, such as disk space or network bandwidth, IT teams can predict when additional resources will be needed and plan accordingly. This helps prevent service disruptions due to resource exhaustion.
3. Security monitoring: Infrastructure monitoring can also include security-focused monitoring, such as detecting unusual network traffic patterns or unauthorized access attempts. This helps identify and mitigate security threats in real-time.
4. Application performance optimization: Monitoring the performance of applications and their underlying infrastructure components enables IT teams to identify performance bottlenecks, optimize configurations, and improve end-user experience.

References:

• DataDog: What is Infrastructure Monitoring?
• SolarWinds: Infrastructure Monitoring