The cloud is one of the most important considerations for any modern company. After all, the power that the cloud provides is second to none and can facilitate lots of different tools that can supercharge your business.

One of the ways that the cloud enables this is by empowering insights, giving you a new way to be able to use data to inform your future decisions. At the forefront of this is Microsoft, with Azure Monitor. Powered by the Azure cloud platform, Azure Monitor is a must-have tool for any business looking to take advantage of the power of their data to its fullest extent.

In this article, we’re going to go over the ins and outs of Azure Monitor and show you how you can fully utilise Azure Monitor, with practical examples. We’ll take a look at some of the benefits, and also let you know how you can get started today.

Key Features of Azure Monitor

Logs

Azure Monitor Logs is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for collating, analysing, and acting on data generated by applications, both in the Azure network and outside of the Azure network.

With this, you can collect logs, manage log data and costs, and consume different types of data all in one workspace. This means that you never have to move your data around or manage other storage while being able to retain different data types for as long as you require.

Metrics

Azure Monitor Metrics is a feature within Azure Monitor that collects numeric data from resources into a database at regular intervals.

It works with Logs to form the wider Azure Monitor platform, which together lets you collect and organise log and performance data and analyse the health and usage statistics of your Azure resources over time.

Alerts

Azure Monitor Alerts are there to help you detect and address issues quickly before they become a problem. Azure Monitor Alerts notify you proactively when your data indicates there may be a problem somewhere within your infrastructure.

The alerts can be through notifications, messages, and calls, among other methods, and can be highly customised to follow whatever rules you may require.

Insights

Azure Monitor Insights is a core feature of Azure Monitor and provides visualisations of your data and telemetry, giving you an easy way to monitor your infrastructure’s metrics and health.

With this, you have a full overview of your infrastructure, giving you more information to be able to act quickly while also making it easier to understand exactly what’s happening throughout your Azure implementation.

Benefits of Using Azure Monitor

Azure Monitor is a comprehensive tool with lots of features, but it’s also vital to know exactly how it’ll benefit your business. After all, there’s no point in implementing a new tool without knowing exactly what it can do for you.

Here are a few benefits of using Azure Monitor:

  • Comprehensive Monitoring: Azure Monitor provides end-to-end monitoring for applications, infrastructure, and network performance. It collects and displays data from multiple sources such as Azure, on-premises environments, and hybrid environments, giving you a holistic and detailed view of your systems.
  • Real-Time Insights: With Azure Monitor, you can easily access real-time data and insights to get accurate updates as they happen. With this, you can have a better understanding of how your infrastructure is running in real-time.
  • Azure Integration: Azure Monitor is fully integrated with Microsoft Azure, meaning it works seamlessly with tools such as Azure Sentinel. This makes centralisation far easier and ultimately reduces strain on administrators, meaning fewer things get missed and fewer mistakes are made.

Practical Applications and Use Cases

Much like the benefits, knowing exactly how you can use Azure Monitor in real-world cases is vital to understanding how beneficial it can be for your business. You can look to these use cases to get started with Azure Monitor right away — and reap the benefits — without the hassle of having to work out how to implement Azure Monitor into your business.

Let’s take a look at some of the best use cases for Azure Monitor:

  • Application Performance Monitoring: You can use Azure Monitor Insights to track application performance, response times, and failure rates. This will help you identify bottlenecks and other issues that may cause your systems to slow.
  • Network Performance Monitoring: Azure Monitor can also keep track of your network to be able to provide detailed insights into the specifics of your network performance. This will help you identify potential problems and indicate if something needs to be investigated within your network.
  • Security Monitoring: You can use Azure Monitor with Azure Security Center to track security events and monitor suspicious activity. This will be a great monitoring tool for security purposes.

Getting Started with Azure Monitor

Azure Monitor is accessible within the Azure Portal, and is immediately available within any Azure subscription. This means that as long as you have Azure, you can get started with implementing Azure Monitor.

However, there are a few steps that you should follow when starting with Azure Monitor:

  • Plan Your Implementation: Make sure to plan and define your strategy, and take note of what to monitor based on analysis of what metrics are important for your business.
  • Configure Data Collection: The next step is to configure data collection to enable Azure Monitor, using a Log Analytics workspace.
  • Optimisation: As you move forward with Azure Monitor, make sure to iterate and optimise to save costs and get the most performance for each penny.

How We Can Help

Azure Monitor is a vital tool for any business looking to leverage the cloud to get a better understanding of their business’s key metrics and performance.

If you’re looking for help getting started with Azure, we’re here to help you get the most out of your implementation. We’re here to give you a helping hand and ensure that you have the support you need to prosper the whole way.

Get in touch with us now and see how we can help you.