3 Apps to Manage Your Home Business Network From Anywhere

Sometimes, it feels like having to stay at your desk to monitor your company's servers defeats the entire purpose of having up-to-date data. It's frustrating to have to dart between your work station and the source of an IT issue that can't be handled remotely, so it's important to have a mobile solution. Thankfully, there are several mobile applications on the market today that can give you network alerts and other information about the system from anywhere. Whether you need an app for simple updates or a robust program to mirror your desktop monitoring software, there are plenty of excellent options.

1. iPRTG

Many IT professionals have been using network monitoring products by Paessler for over 15 years, including the modern program PRTG. iPRTG is an iOS app that lets you access your desktop PRTG network monitor from your mobile device. It offers at-a-glance updates for a variety of the monitor's elements, from the home screen and sensors, to recent log entries and service maps. iPRTG also lets you acknowledge alarms, pause, resume and check sensor activity, and send emails with a direct link to a monitoring object so everyone on the IT team is on the same page. PRTG has always been a great tool, and the mobile component is essential for anyone who has come to rely on this network monitor for daily service.

2. ManageEngine ServiceDesk

This handy app is a full ticket management program for quick, on-the-go communication. ServiceDesk allows you to create, edit and sort service requests, as well as manage time with quick response components so you can close tickets as needed. The app lets you assign and pick up requests, and create a clear worklog with a time tracker to increase your efficiency. ServiceDesk also lets you define priority requests so you can pick up the most important tickets first. All in all, it's a real time-saver if you spend a lot of the day putting out fires. ServiceDesk works smoothly with IdeaPad Notebooks and mobile devices and is available through iTunes and the Android Market.

3. IT Manager

This awesome offering from Smarter Apps is the go-to mobile solution for handling big stuff away from the office. IT Manager covers a wide variety of systems, including Google Apps, Amazon Web Services, Telnet, SSH, RDP, VNC, Apple Remote Desktop, Windows servers and BlackBerry Enterprise servers. It's extensive enough to do the job of a desktop network monitoring program, but simple enough to work on a mobile device. For example, the network tools segment of IT Manager allows you to remotely ping, trace multiple routes live, perform whois queries, calculate submasks and diagnose other issues with a simple, clear interface. It's the very definition of robust.

It may be challenging to translate the complexity and ease of access inherent to desktop network monitoring programs to a mobile GUI, but doing so is the most important aspect of the IT software market. Whether it's an existing system with a mobile add-on or a stand-alone app that replaces desktop software entirely, network management apps need to follow strong examples like the above if they're going to survive in a rapidly evolving landscape.