NetCrunch 2024 Review

NetCrunch 2024 was a year of innovation and performance breakthroughs, with two major releases introducing enhanced features like Interface View, diagraming improvements, and telemetry integration. These updates deliver improved usability, faster performance, and better resource efficiency for network management.

2024 was an exceptional year for NetCrunch, marked by transformative updates that delivered not only groundbreaking features but also significant performance improvements and reduced memory consumption. These advancements ensure a faster, more efficient, and seamless experience for users.

With two major releases—versions 14 and 15—NetCrunch continued to set the standard for comprehensive network monitoring and management. Here’s a recap of the year’s highlights.

February 2024: NetCrunch 14

NetCrunch 14 delivered a robust suite of updates, expanding its functionality and improving usability. Below are the highlights:

• Interface View NetCrunch introduced the Interface View, a new feature that organizes all interfaces from a node group (e.g., switches or servers) into a clear grid format. This separate tab groups data by switch or server, providing a comprehensive overview of interface performance. Historical data and weekly usage heatmaps offer valuable insights for better network management.

• Diagraming Improvements This release brought substantial enhancements to diagram creation. With over 2,000 new symbols from popular providers like Google, AWS, VMware, and Azure, the total icon library now exceeds 5,000 symbols.

• Dashboard Enhancements Dashboards received multiple updates, including new widgets, threshold visualizations, customizable bar styles, and more, offering greater flexibility and usability for monitoring and analysis.

• Geographical Locations with Contour Maps NetCrunch now features over 150 geographic contour maps covering countries and regions. Users can place widgets on these maps using geographic coordinates or addresses, enabling spatial network diagrams that visually represent network elements in their geographical context.

• Monitoring Sensor Updates New and improved sensors were added, including the Config Sensor, Bandwidth Sensor, and SQL Server Sensor, enabling more granular and efficient monitoring.

• End-of-Life Monitoring Proactive monitoring for devices reaching the end of their lifecycle ensures better planning and resource allocation.

• UI/UX Enhancements Usability was improved with updates like heatmaps in the Trend Viewer, enhanced device search by MAC address, and various chart improvements. Learn more about version 14 updates.

September 2024: NetCrunch 15

NetCrunch 15 built on the foundation of version 14, introducing groundbreaking features and critical updates:

• Graphical Data View Sharing Users can now share Graphical Data Views and even embed them into other web pages, enhancing collaboration and accessibility.

• Redesigned Console Experience The console experience was completely redesigned, bringing the web console’s look and feel in line with the desktop experience, ensuring consistency and improving usability.

• Monitoring Interface Errors and Discards Enhanced monitoring capabilities now include tracking interface errors and discards, providing deeper insights into network performance.

• Security Updates One of the most critical updates in version 15 was addressing significant security vulnerabilities. We strongly recommend upgrading to ensure your system remains secure.

• Extended Node Database The node database was enhanced with the addition of tags and attachments, enabling more detailed and organized data management.

• Telemetry and OTLP Integration Telemetry and OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) integration were added to provide better observability support, streamlining data collection and analysis workflows.

December 2024: NetCrunch 15.1

NetCrunch 15.1 introduced key improvements and new features to enhance monitoring and observability:

• Enhanced Windows Process Monitoring The ability to identify processes such as Node.js or Java by their parameters or location was added, along with monitoring of child processes.

• Hyper-V Checkpoints Monitoring NetCrunch now supports monitoring Hyper-V checkpoints, improving virtual environment observability.

• Improved SSL Error Identification Enhanced detection and reporting of SSL errors ensure better handling of secure connections.

• IIS Application Pool Monitoring Monitoring for IIS application pools was introduced, enabling proactive management of web applications.

• Support for MS Teams Webhooks Added support for the new MS Teams webhook API requirements coming in 2025.

Learn more about version 15 updates.

Why Upgrade?

Both releases in 2024 brought transformative features and critical security fixes. From the powerful Interface View and enhanced geographical diagrams in version 14 to the redesigned console and advanced monitoring in version 15, upgrading ensures you’re leveraging the full potential of NetCrunch for your network management needs.