Future-proof IT monitoring
in the education sector
- Central overview of your educational IT infrastructure, also of distributed networks
- Full support and out-of-the-box integration of common protocols and manufacturers
- Highly transparent licensing and fair pricing with all your monitoring needs included
5 reasons why experts monitor IT in education with PRTG
State-of-the-art teaching has long since done away with blackboards and overhead projectors. Educational content is increasingly provided via the internet and e-learning offers, interactive whiteboards, or online timetable & classroom management are on the rise. This growing educational IT infrastructure makes it crucial to always keep an eye on educational technology.
- Check hardware, e-learning applications, bandwidth, wireless & remote access, and more with a single tool
- Install and set up monitoring quickly and easily using preconfigured sensors and device templates
- Integrate devices from different manufacturers without needing to worry about vendor lock-in
- Benefit from monitoring an unlimited number of distributed locations at no extra cost
- Keep your costs in check by using monitoring data for network optimization and saving resources
These challenges make monitoring of educational IT environments essential
Schools, technical colleges, universities, and other educational institutions increasingly rely on a functioning, stable, and highly performant IT infrastructure to deliver on-site teaching as well as online learning offers. These requirements pose a lot of challenges, which make finding a suitable network monitoring solution even more important.
Integration of heterogeneous IT environments
Multiple networks on several sites, on-premises and cloud infrastructures, virtual environments, and hardware from many different manufacturers: monitoring and managing educational IT infrastructures can be quite burdensome and time-consuming.
It is therefore extremely important to have an all-in-one monitoring solution that supports all common protocols like SNMP, WMI, or Flow, monitors all kinds of manufacturers without vendor lock-in, and lets you integrate new systems in a quick and easy way.
Struggling with tight budgets and lack of IT experts
In the public sector in particular, educational institutions are usually kept on a tight leash regarding the money they can spend on their IT network and equipment. In addition, they need to rely on different external companies to set up and maintain their IT.
For websites and applications, school staff find open-source in-house solutions to save costs, which are neglected if the person who is responsible leaves. There is often no money left for a professional monitoring solution, and the results are frequent downtimes and an unreliable infrastructure.
Monitoring multiple distributed locations and networks
Whether it’s a school with several buildings, an entire campus, or a university whose departments and lecture halls are distributed across a whole city: almost all IT teams in the education sector are faced with the task of managing and keeping an eye on remote infrastructures.
To be able to have an overview of monitoring data from all distributed sites on a central dashboard, it is necessary to find a network monitoring tool that automatically collects data in an easy and secure way, analyzes and stores the data centrally, and sends real-time alerts in case of issues.
What education IT monitoring looks like in PRTG
Diagnose issues with your online and mobile learning infrastructure by continuously monitoring your applications, hardware, bandwidth, traffic, availability, and more. Show monitoring data in real time and visualize it in graphic maps & dashboards to identify problems more easily. Gain the visibility you need to troubleshoot issues before they become critical.
Device tree view in PRTG with hierarchical structure
Custom PRTG dashboard for visualizing IT infrastructure monitoring
Overview of all warning and error alerts detected by PRTG sensors
Start monitoring your educational IT technology, services & systems with PRTG and see how it will make your job easier as well as your network more reliable and performant.
Our users give top ratings for monitoring with Paessler PRTG
Why PRTG is the educational IT monitoring tool of your choice
Ensure high-performant distance education & eLearning
- Keep an eye on the availability and performance of online learning in virtual classrooms
- Make sure that web-based trainings and video conferences work without interruptions
- Watch the hardware and connections necessary for modern, media-based teaching
Centrally
monitor distributed IT infrastructures
- Consolidate monitoring data from various locations in a unified overview
- Use remote probes to collect data and send it to a central server in encrypted form
- Install as many remote probes as required for your remote sites at no extra cost
Get network monitoring at a fair price to keep costs in check
- Benefit from a solution that covers all your monitoring needs in one license
- Get a well-founded data basis to optimize your network and save resources and costs
- Create easy-to-understand reports for stakeholders to account for necessary IT expenditures
Enable data integration from heterogeneous systems
- Integrate hardware from well-known manufacturers via device templates
- Benefit from vendor-independent monitoring using custom PRTG sensors
- Keep an eye on your systems with out-of-the-box support of all common IT protocols
Receive custom alerts and notifications in real time
- Set warning and error thresholds to be alerted before an outage occurs
- Make sure that the right people are informed via the right channel at the right time
- Use one or more notification methods of your choice, e.g. email or push notification
“Excellent tool for detailed monitoring. Alarms and notifications work greatly. Equipment addition is straight forward and server initial setup is very easy. ...feel safe to purchase it if you intend to monitor a large networking landscape.”
Infrastructure and Operations Engineer in the Communications Industry, firm size 10B - 30B USD
Start monitoring your educational IT technology, services & systems with PRTG and see how it will make your job easier as well as your network more reliable and performant.
Success stories from our customers
Companies around the world trust Paessler PRTG when it comes to ensuring that their IT systems run smoothly.
School District of Pickens County uses Paessler PRTG to keep students & teachers productive
The School District of Pickens County (SDPC) is located in the northwestern region of South Carolina. SDPC includes 14 elementary schools, five middle schools, four high schools, and a state-of-the-art career and technology center. The district uses Paessler PRTG to monitor the network infrastructure for any anomalies that could come up to make sure instruction can continue without any hiccups.
Seattle Pacific University keeps students and faculty running with Paessler PRTG
Founded in 1891, Seattle Pacific University (SPU) is a Christian university based in Seattle, Washington. The school hosts 4,000 students and its IT department is responsible for providing a variety of services for both students & faculty. With Paessler PRTG, the IT team is notified of problems before they bubble up to the user level so that they can see a decrease in the number of complaints sent to the help desk.
Paessler PRTG helps thousands of US online high school students
Originally designed to help reluctant learners gain access to the kind of alternative education they need for credit recovery or supplemental assistance, class.com has become one of the country's most prominent providers of online curriculum for high schools. To keep its network running at optimum performance and thwart critical failures before they happen, class.com depends on Paessler PRTG.
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Lansweeper
Asset visibility is a big problem for many IT teams. Not having an accurate inventory of tech assets is inefficient, costly and a potential security risk.
Educational IT monitoring: FAQ
1. What are common educational technologies?
Common educational technologies encompass a wide range of tools and resources that are used to enhance and support teaching and learning. These technologies have evolved over time and continue to shape the modern education landscape.
- Learning Management Systems (LMS): LMS platforms like Moodle, Blackboard, and Canvas provide a central hub for online course materials, communication, assignments, and grading.
- Online learning platforms: Platforms like Coursera, edX, and Khan Academy offer a vast array of online courses and educational content.
- E-books and e-readers: Digital textbooks and e-readers, such as Kindle or tablets, allow students to access and carry their study materials conveniently.
- Video conferencing tools: Tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams have become essential for remote and hybrid learning, enabling live video lectures and discussions.
- Educational apps: There are numerous mobile apps for learning, including language learning apps, math apps, and interactive educational games.
- Interactive whiteboards: These digital whiteboards, such as SMART Boards, facilitate dynamic and engaging classroom presentations.
- Simulations and virtual labs: These allow students to perform experiments and simulations in a virtual environment, especially in science and healthcare education.
- Computer-based training (CBT): CBT encompasses a variety of courses that are designed to be completed on a computer. What sets CBT apart is the absence of a physical instructor or facilitator.
2. What is educational IT monitoring?
Educational IT monitoring is critical for maintaining the reliability, security, and performance of technology systems within schools, colleges, and universities. It helps prevent downtime, ensures a productive learning and teaching environment, and safeguards sensitive information.
Monitoring tools and practices may be managed by in-house IT teams or outsourced to third-party service providers, depending on the institution's resources and requirements.
3. What are the benefits of an educational IT monitoring solution?
Implementing an educational IT monitoring solution offers several benefits for educational institutions, including schools, colleges, and universities. These benefits contribute to the efficient operation of IT systems and enhance the overall educational experience. Here are some of the key advantages of using an educational IT monitoring solution:
- Improved system reliability: IT monitoring helps identify and address issues proactively, reducing the risk of system downtime. This ensures that educational resources and tools are consistently available for students, teachers, and staff.
- Enhanced security: Monitoring solutions can detect and alert to potential security threats and unauthorized access attempts. This is crucial for protecting sensitive data, student records, and research information.
- Optimized performance: Educational IT monitoring optimizes the performance of IT infrastructure, ensuring that applications and services run smoothly. This leads to a better user experience for both students and faculty.
- Resource efficiency: By tracking resource utilization, institutions can allocate resources more efficiently, reducing wastage and saving costs. This is important for budget-conscious educational organizations.
- Better planning and scalability: Educational IT monitoring provides valuable data for future planning and resource allocation. It helps institutions make informed decisions about scaling IT infrastructure as needed.
- Remote management: Many IT monitoring solutions offer remote management capabilities, which can be especially valuable for educational institutions with multiple campuses or online learning programs.
- Enhanced staff productivity: IT staff can focus on proactive tasks and improvements rather than constantly firefighting issues, leading to higher productivity and job satisfaction.
4. What’s the difference between education monitoring and education IT monitoring?
Education monitoring and education IT monitoring are related concepts but focus on different aspects of educational processes within an institution.
education monitoring looks at the broader educational landscape, focusing on student outcomes, curriculum quality, and teaching effectiveness, while education IT monitoring is a more specialized aspect of this, concentrating on the monitoring of IT systems to support and enhance the educational processes.
Both are important for the overall success of an educational institution, with education IT monitoring specifically addressing the technical infrastructure that supports teaching and learning.
5. What is a sensor in PRTG?
In PRTG, “sensors” are the basic monitoring elements. One sensor usually monitors one measured value in your network, for example the traffic of a switch port, the CPU load of a server, or the free space on a disk drive.
On average, you need about 5-10 sensors per device or one sensor per switch port.
Get more deep-dive information about monitoring educational IT
Monitoring educational IT infrastructures with PRTG
Read about how the educational sector has changed in terms of virtual classroom and learning platform offers, what typical requirements for a monitoring solution in the education sector there are, and how Paessler PRTG can meet these challenge and requirements.
Why network monitoring is important in the educational sector
Find out why, even if “a switch is a switch and needs to be monitored”, a monitoring solution for a university is faced with completely different requirements than, for example, a monitoring solution for a hospital, and how industry-specific insights can help you here.
Free white paper: Ensuring education with network monitoring
This white paper introduces Paessler PRTG as a reliable solution for monitoring your educational IT systems. Get an overview of how network monitoring can help overcome challenges with e-learning and become a key component in IT optimization in the education sector.
Start monitoring your educational IT technology, services & systems with PRTG and see how it will make your job easier as well as your network more reliable and performant.
Combining the broad monitoring feature set of PRTG with IP Fabric’s automated network assurance creates a new level of network visibility and reliability.