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In this lesson,

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we're going to discuss monitoring resources.

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Now in the digital world,

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the effective management of resources

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is crucial for the smooth operation

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of any organizational network

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by monitoring its systems,

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applications and infrastructure

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to ensure optimal performance,

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security and reliability can be achieved.

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Now first, we're going to talk about

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monitoring of our systems.

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Now, system monitoring involves

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observing the performance of a computer system,

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including its system resources

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like CPU utilization, resource consumption,

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memory consumption, disk usage, and network performance,

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in order to help us identify any potential issues

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that could affect the system's performance or stability.

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Now, in order to perform optimal system monitoring,

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we do need to understand what a baseline is.

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Now, a baseline refers to

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a set of established performance metrics

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and data points that represent

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the typical or expected behavior

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of a computer system, network or application,

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under its normal operating conditions.

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These metrics can include CPU usage,

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memory utilization, disk activity,

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network traffic, and much more.

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By creating a baseline,

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cybersecurity professionals and system administrators

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can establish a reference point to compare against

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when monitoring system performance over time.

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Deviations from the baseline

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can indicate potential issues,

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abnormalities, and performance problems

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that could enable proactive troubleshooting

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and maintenance in order to ensure

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your system operates optimally

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and reliably over time.

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Basically, a baseline helps to serve

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as a reference point or standard

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against which the performance of our system can be measured.

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And this basically represents

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what normal looks like for a given system.

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Now, anytime something goes outside of the baseline

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or what normal looks like, well,

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in this case we want to investigate that

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and analyze it to determine

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why things are outside of

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those normally expected baseline values.

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For example,

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if a system administrator uses a different tool

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to monitor the health of their servers in their data center,

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they might be able to use those tools

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and get real-time information about the server performance

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including its CPU utilization,

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memory consumption and network traffic.

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If that server CP utilization

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remains consistently high though,

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this might indicate that there's

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a need for additional resources

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or that there's a potential problem

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with that given server.

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Now, if you're a Windows user

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on your desktop or laptop,

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you can also see the same kind

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of system monitoring on your own individualized system

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by using the performance monitor.

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By using the performance monitor on your Windows system,

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you're going to be able to see

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how much CPU utilization is occurring,

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how much memory is being used,

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how much storage is being used and other key metrics

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about your system's overall performance.

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Second, we need to talk about application monitoring.

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Now, application monitoring,

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also known as application performance monitoring,

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is going to focus on managing and monitoring

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the performance and availability

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of your software applications,

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by tracking errors, bottlenecks,

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and other potential issues

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that could affect an application's performance

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or user experience.

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For example, a software developer might use

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an application monitoring tool

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like New Relic or AppDynamics

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to monitor a specific web application.

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These tools can track response times, error rates,

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and other key performance indicators

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to be able to decide whether or not

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the application has any issues

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that we need to take care of.

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If an application's response time is slow, for example,

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this could indicate that there's

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a problem with the applications code

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or the need for additional server resources

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to be added to that web application server.

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Now, third and finally, we have infrastructure monitoring.

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Infrastructure monitoring involves

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observing the performance and availability

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of an organization's physical

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and virtual infrastructure,

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including servers, networks, virtual machines,

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containers, cloud services and other hardware.

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For example, a network engineer might use

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a tool like SolarWinds or the PRTG network monitor

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to monitor the health

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of a company's network infrastructure.

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These tools are used to provide

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information about the network traffic,

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the bandwidth utilization

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and the status of your networking devices.

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For example, if you see that a network switch

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is constantly being overloaded,

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this could indicate that

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additional network capacity is going to be needed,

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or that there's a potential problem

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that exists within your organization's

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network configuration settings.

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So remember, monitoring your systems,

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applications and infrastructure

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is a critical aspect of

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your organization's technological operations.

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Monitoring can help identify potential issues

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before they become significant problems, as well.

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Monitoring is going to help us to ensure

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the performance is optimized

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and that we're planning for

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our future resource needs, too.

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System monitoring involves

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tracking our system resources

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like CPU utilization, memory consumption,

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disc utilization and network performance.

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Application monitoring is going to be focused

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on managing and monitoring the performance

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and availability of our software applications.

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And infrastructure monitoring involves

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observing the performance and availability

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of an organization's physical or virtual infrastructure.

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By using the right monitoring tools and strategies,

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our organizations can effectively monitor their resources

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and this in turn is going to lead

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to improved performance, reliability, and user satisfaction.