SolarWinds Observability SaaS – Service Delivery Assurance & Troubleshooting with NetPath

Welcome back to our series on the key network monitoring and management capabilities of SolarWinds^® Observability SaaS. In the first post, we explored the extensive device coverage available out of the box, making it easy to discover and monitor everything from basic network devices to advanced infrastructure. In this second installment, we'll dive into how our SaaS observability option helps ensure reliable service delivery and streamlines troubleshooting using the NetPath feature.

Why NetPath?

With the increasing complexity of modern networks, often spanning on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments, gaining visibility into service paths is crucial for maintaining network performance and resolving issues quickly. The NetPath feature of SolarWinds Observability—previously only available on SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, but now also available on SolarWinds Observability SaaS—provides a visual, in-depth analysis of network paths to help ensure seamless service delivery and accelerate the time to troubleshoot problems.

See Inside the Internet Cloud

NetPath offers unique visibility beyond your network perimeter, revealing the paths that data packets take across the Internet. Unlike basic traceroute tools, NetPath provides a graphical representation of network paths, showing you every hop from source to destination and offering insights into service performance across internal and external networks.

• Graphical Representation of Network Paths: The NetPath visual maps make it easy to understand the flow of data through the network. The intuitive interface highlights every hop, making it easier to spot bottlenecks or performance issues.
• Hop-by-Hop Performance Details: Each network segment is presented with performance metrics such as latency, packet loss, and node availability, enabling IT teams to pinpoint exactly where an issue may arise, whether within your own infrastructure or at a third-party provider.

Paths are conveniently grouped by endpoint, allowing you to quickly identify any problematic services across all probes.

Clicking on an endpoint provides a quick view of all the probes, allowing you to identify those experiencing an issue such as high packet loss.

Deep Insights into Critical Network Paths

With NetPath, you can monitor all your critical network paths, not just internal segments. This gives you a full view of service delivery across multi-site networks or hybrid environments. The tool's end-to-end path visualization helps identify potential weak spots that may affect service performance or availability.

• Monitor Across Internal and External Segments: Track data flow across your private network, data centers, cloud environments, and third-party providers to ensure continuous service delivery. NetPath identifies disruptions, allowing IT teams to proactively address issues before they escalate.

• Visibility Across Multi-Site Deployments: For organizations with multiple locations, NetPath helps ensure that you can monitor the network paths between sites and identify any latency or connectivity issues that may impact service quality.

Identify Service Degradation Early

The NetPath granular monitoring capabilities allow for early detection of potential service degradation, enabling quick remediation before end-users are affected. With hop-by-hop insights, IT teams can rapidly isolate the root cause and take corrective actions to minimize downtime.

• Proactive Detection of Potential Issues: Configurable thresholds for latency and packet loss enable proactive monitoring, alerting IT teams to any performance degradation as soon as it occurs.

• Accelerated Time to Resolution: With the ability to trace issues down to a specific network hop, NetPath significantly reduces mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to repair (MTTR).

Understand Dependencies and Connections

NetPath not only visualizes network paths but also reveals interdependencies between network elements and connected services. This holistic view aids in understanding the broader impact of network performance issues on service delivery.

• Comprehensive Dependency Mapping: The visual path maps show relationships between network nodes, services, and endpoints, enabling a clearer understanding of how network issues could impact connected applications.

• Assess Impact on Service Delivery: With an understanding of the network's dependencies, IT teams can better assess the potential impact of performance issues on service delivery and prioritize troubleshooting efforts accordingly.

Customizable Path Monitoring for Flexible Use Cases

NetPath allows customization to suit different monitoring needs, providing the flexibility to track any network path—whether it’s to internal servers, external websites, or third-party services. This versatility makes it suitable for various use cases, from monitoring application connectivity to assessing service availability.

• Adapt Monitoring to Your Environment: Customize NetPath to monitor specific routes that are crucial to your business, such as paths to cloud services, VPN endpoints, or hosted applications.

Conclusion

The NetPath advanced path analysis and traffic monitoring capabilities set SolarWinds Observability apart, enabling IT teams to maintain high service delivery standards and troubleshoot network issues efficiently from a cloud-native observability solution. By visualizing the entire network path, from on-premises to the cloud, NetPath helps ensure that you can proactively manage network performance and quickly resolve problems— whether you choose our SaaS or self-hosted observability option.

Next Up: Stay tuned for the next blog in this series, where we'll explore how SolarWinds Observability SaaS simplifies network device configuration backup and analysis.