The notion of monitoring can be linked to the supervision or control of a place or situation.
Monitoring is a term not included in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) . Its origin is found in a monitor , a device that takes images from filming installations or sensors and that allows something to be viewed on a screen. The monitor, therefore, helps control or supervise a situation .
This allows us to infer that monitoring is the act and result of monitoring , the verb used to name supervision or control carried out through a monitor. By extension, monitoring is any action of this type, beyond the use of a monitor.
For example: "The monitoring of the entrance reflects that everything is very calm" , "We have three professionals dedicated to patient monitoring" , "The company will be subject to environmental control monitoring by the authorities" .
What does monitoring consist of?
Monitoring, in general terms, consists of observing the course of one or more parameters to detect possible anomalies . Nurses can monitor a patient's vital signs through a device that graphically reflects their heartbeat; If they notice any problem, they are in charge of notifying the doctors .
In the field of security , monitoring can be carried out effectively through a monitor (which transmits the images captured by a camera) or through the work of a security guard. If this person discovers any strange movement (such as the entry of an unidentified individual into the building he is guarding or the presence of a suspicious object in a bank, for example), he will have to act to avoid a risky situation.
Security monitoring is usually done through multiple cameras.
Environmental observation
Environmental monitoring consists of observing the environment to collect information related to pollution. Usually fixed stations are established that record the levels of foreign agents in the atmosphere on a daily basis, and mobile units are in charge of tasks such as surveillance and inspection of various areas.
Some of the parameters that are measured are temperature , wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, solar radiation and precipitation.
Network monitoring
Within the field of network administration, a system that constantly monitors a computer network is known as network monitoring , trying to detect defects and anomalies; If you find any defects, send a report to the administrators.
Network monitoring clearly differs from systems designed to detect intrusions: the latter is responsible for searching for unauthorized attempts to enter the network , while the former works on potential internal errors of the servers.
Generally, the data that is evaluated are the availability factor (the percentage of time that a system or equipment is operational with respect to the total period of its operation) and the response time ; On the other hand, reliability and consistency are also taken into account. It is worth mentioning that the use of devices that optimize network performance becomes an obstacle to accurate measurement by monitoring applications, especially when seeking to calculate the response time from one point to another.
Among the anomalies that most commonly cause monitoring systems to react are failed status requests, which can occur when a connection cannot be established, or when the waiting time expires, among other possibilities. The actions that are programmed to combat this type of situation are diverse; The two preferred options are sending an alarm to network administrators and launching some control program automatically.