How to monitor low-bandwidth sites

The constraints of low-bandwidth sites

Many companies and organizations have remote sites with limited bandwidth. Whether it is remote sites, regional offices, industrial sites or mobile environments, limited bandwidth remains a major challenge for ensuring continuous and reliable monitoring of IT systems.

At these sites, every megabyte counts. Low-bandwidth communications and high network latency can disrupt metric collection, slow down the reporting of critical alerts and make it difficult to correlate events in real time.

In these contexts, monitoring must be redesigned to be more resilient and economical. This is precisely where intelligent agents come into play.

Strategies for intelligent agents to perform

Modern intelligent agents no longer just collect and transmit data, they adapt to network conditions.

Here are some key strategies to implement to ensure their effectiveness, even with limited bandwidth:

🔸 Data compression and optimisation
Logs and traces consume even more than sending metrics. Before sending their data, agents can compress or aggregate data, drastically reducing the volume transmitted. Lightweight formats and deferred exchanges help avoid network overload.

🔸 Local processing and edge computing
Some of the analysis can be performed locally, directly on site. Agents can filter, aggregate and transmit only essential data to the centre — an effective way to limit upstream flows.

🔸 Lightweight and secure protocols
A protocol such as HTTP2 combined with the HTTPS protocol optimizes exchanges and enables smooth and secure data communication. This protocol aids compression and allows multiplexing of multiple requests through a single TCP connection to optimize data transmission.

These best practices lay the theoretical foundations for intelligent monitoring that is bandwidth-efficient. They are essential prerequisites applied by the specific ServicePilot solutions that we will detail below.

Distributed agents: reliable remote collection

At ServicePilot, distributed monitoring is based on proven architecture. At the heart of this model, distributed ServicePilot Agents can be deployed at remote sites to make collection more reliable and secure.

A distributed collector can query the site's equipment, servers, and applications to transmit the collected data to the ServicePilot platform. The use of a protocol such as HTTP2 enables data compression and flow optimization.

By reducing direct exchanges between each piece of equipment and the ServicePilot platform, the distributed agent also helps to minimise bandwidth consumption and simplify the flow matrix.

The agent also allows data to be pre-processed and aggregated so that KPIs can be sent instead of raw data, thereby saving bandwidth.

SPProxy: relay for distributed environments

Without a smart proxy, monitoring remote sites with low bandwidth is impossible. That is why ServicePilot offers SPProxy, a true smart proxy that acts as a convergence and security point between remote agents and the central platform.

Simplified deployments
In distributed environments, SPProxy greatly simplifies deployment because agents connect locally to the proxy, without relying on the WAN network. It has a local cache for the files needed by the agents to update them centrally while allowing the platform to maintain a consolidated view of all remote sites.

Pooling and optimizing traffic
SPProxy aggregates and compresses communications from agents at the same site before transmitting them. This results in fewer simultaneous connections to the central server, lower bandwidth consumption, and faster, more reliable exchanges.

Security and simplification of flows
By consolidating all outgoing communications, SPProxy reduces exposure by limiting direct connections to the Internet. It provides end-to-end, systematic encryption of exchanges for all connected agents. This means that remote agents no longer need to open external sessions individually, as SPProxy becomes the single point of trust between the site and the ServicePilot platform.

This hybrid model, combining local intelligence and central monitoring, promotes optimal scalability while respecting network constraints. It guarantees performance, security and network efficiency.

Concrete examples of use in the field

Distributed intelligent agents combined with SPProxy find their maximum value in distributed environments—where centralized monitoring comes up against the realities in the field.

Here are two representative use cases that illustrate how this approach transforms network constraints into operational advantages.

🏭 Remote international factories and subsidiaries

Context:
A company has many factories and branches connected via ADSL or 4G links, which are often unstable and have limited bandwidth. The IT teams at headquarters must nevertheless monitor the performance of network equipment, application servers, and security cameras.

Problem:
Direct collections to the platform generated significant traffic and caused the site to slow down. In addition, multiplying outgoing connections for each piece of equipment from each site increased security risks.

ServicePilot solution:
Agents deployed locally query all equipments at the sites.
SPProxy, installed as a relay, groups together all agent exchanges per site and transmits them to the central server in a compressed and secure manner.

Results:

• Bandwidth divided by several times
• Simplified administration: only one outgoing flow to maintain per site

🏫 Public organizations and sensitive multi-sites

Context:
A public entity manages a large number of buildings or establishments connected through a restricted administrative network. Each local entity must be monitored without increasing the number of external network openings.

Problem:
Security policies prohibit multiple outgoing connections and require full traceability of data flows. Monitoring must therefore be centralized without compromising the security of remote sites.

ServicePilot solution:
Distributed agents allow complete monitoring to be maintained without multiplying flow openings.
SPProxy acts as a single point of trust between agents deployed locally in each site's internal networks and the ServicePilot platform. All agent communications pass through this secure proxy, which encrypts flows and applies strict filtering rules.

Results:

• Enhanced compliance with internal network policies
• Drastic reduction in flow openings
• Centralized monitoring without compromising the security of sensitive environments

Turning network constraints into opportunities

Modern monitoring is no longer limited to collecting data: it must adapt to real-world environments which can be limited.

With components such as distributed agents and SPProxy, ServicePilot enables companies to maintain complete visibility of their infrastructure, even in low-bandwidth environments.

These innovations do more than mitigate a constraint: they pave the way for more efficient, more secure and more sustainable monitoring wherever your systems operate.