Best Practices In Deciding on Network Monitoring Application

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Hawaii (HMSA) found by itself with a swiftly expanding network and info center. Our network devices, servers, and computer software had been all rising in complexity and we knew that we would have to leverage technologies to acquire better handle of our IT systems and network.
In the past, we confronted the identical dilemma that systems administrators in all IT organizations deal with: weighing the worth of simple monitoring solutions versus costly, feature-wealthy enterprise remedies that call for labor intensive maintenance. We tried to put into action a large-scale program and network monitoring package deal from a main vendor but discovered the products was never entirely applied or adopted by the users because of its overbearing complexity. We then quickly applied an affordable, lower-stop package that furnished fundamental monitoring - but lacked much of the deeper performance our organization essential, these as performance and application monitoring.

We knew we had to get a fully new tactic. We made the decision to cultivate a set of best practices to make sure that new investments in method and network monitoring would be productive.

At the core of these greatest practices are two themes - simplicity and cost-effectiveness HMSA's core very best practices relaxation on 5 elements:

- Info middle monitoring technologies ought to be Web-based mostly. Internet-primarily based engineering simplifies rolling out the method, due to the fact no consumer-facet application ought to be put in and upgraded. In addition, administrators can perform from any place. Internet-primarily based user interfaces are also typically effortless to discover, easing adoption and decreasing training costs.

- Monitoring technologies must be standards-based. HMSA selected to adhere to business standards these as Easy Network Monitoring Protocol (SNMP) in order to simplify setup and set up and to steer clear of acquiring locked into one particular vendor's resolution. Since SNMP is supported by practically all hardware and software vendors, monitoring a heterogeneous setting composed of many goods is significantly simplified.

- Monitoring know-how should be automation driven relatively than consulting or manpower intensive. Expending costly and useful IT sources on long-phrase enterprise software projects has confirmed dangerous and costly.

- Data center operations need to be seen as a company procedure. IT departments have a tendency to appear at monitoring engineering as something that displays trending graphs and sends alarms when there are network problems.

- Monitoring technology with basic license phrases is preferable to goods with several add-on or hidden modules. To management the expenses of a monitoring implementation, a organization requirements visibility of up to five or 10 years of ongoing upkeep expenses. Many enterprise software program vendors' goods are composed of severalmodules and components that have separate pricing models and require various instruction and assistance. HMSA believes that goods with a number of parts have a tendency to be a lot more costly and complex to preserve about time.

We evaluated far more than 15 vendors from these finest practices and discovered that CITTIO's WatchTower monitoring platform was the closest match. Equipped with WatchTower and our robust greatest practice tactic, we successfully deployed enterprise-class program and network monitoring on 500 servers and network gadgets in a timely and cost-effective manner. Moreover, we are gaining the comprehensive technique management and network visibility our significant, complicated organization demands.

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