Activities in Application, System & Network Performance Monitoring

Big item to post about right out of the gate!  We all are familiar with the “Performance Management” sector within the Data Center.  Quick couple sentence summary.  Software that automates the collection and identification of potential performance bottlenecks within the data center.  Performance bottlenecks meaning real-time delays, conditions that are affecting productivity or analytics that leverages historical collected data that can help predict a potential performance concern before it happens.

Now there are a TON of large players in this space which we will review in more details in upcoming posts (e.g., BMC, CA, HP, IBM, EMC, Symantec, Quest Software, Microsoft) but today I want to hit on a couple vendors you should consider if you’re tired of working with your current vendor (most likely one of the big names above).

InfoVista is one of the last pure-play companies that provide solutions for automating Data Center Performance Management/Monitoring.  Yesterday, they finally announced a move (after years of OEM’ing various product) to round out their solution on the application performance management perspective.  I’ve talked to a number of large global enterprise/telecom customers who speak the gospel about the quality and capabilities of their products.  They’ve been known in the past for their network and systems centric capabilities but with the acquisition of Accellent they now own the application monitoring technology.  Now, let’s be clear - their solution is designed for large, large Enteprises and/or Telecommunication companies.  If your not looking to do a major global deployment spanning a large data centers and/or vast numbers of remote offices this solution may be overkill for you.   If that is the case I would recommend you taking a look at another company.

Solarwinds is making some major investments in their offerings.  If your a small, medium business or wishing to manage a portion (specific group/organization) within a larger enterprise then take a look at their Orion product line.  You get a major bang for your buck (many times 75% of the functionality you use from one of the big guys at a price point most likely less then your annual maintenance contract).  The other beautiful thing is you can download and evaluate the product in all is glory without ever talking to a single sales person.  Also, they have a very active community behind their products including a great blog, Geek Speak by my friend Josh Stephens, that provides very useful insights and perspective on leveraging their products.