Comments on: Sytec Connects N-able Managed Services to Cisco Unified Communications

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:18:38 +0000

Hey Rob: Forgive me for the shameless plug but your company should be sure to fill out our MSPmentor 100 survey in September (www.mspmentor.net/top-100-msps). Sounds like your firm could be in the running to land on the final list.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:45:26 +0000

Our sales organization is based in NYC while the development organization is based in Syracuse, NY.

We don’t really have a vertical market/size – our customers range from service providers (largest customer with 55,000 Cisco IP phones) and agencies of the federal government down to private schools here in Manhattan.

The common thread is “typically” a Cisco infrastructure with a need to be more efficient with their NMS system.

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:42:08 +0000

Rob: Where are you based and what types of companies are embracing CaseSentry? Any typical company size or vertical market showing interest?

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:26:03 +0000

As a Cisco Gold Partner specializing in UC (CallManager through to CVP) we’ve developed our own managed service that works with the Cisco environment as well as virtually anything on an IP network that can deliver a MIB – our solution is called ShorePatrol and it relies on our own NMS solution called CaseSentry.

It’s a Day 2 support suite which consists of the following:

- Element Management – monitoring the status of every IP device in the network (routers, switches, servers, firewalls, etc) – regardless of device type, regardless of manufacturer.
- Operations Management – Our patented approach to root cause analysis that delivers valid and verified alerts for troubleshooting
- Service Management – An integrated case management solution for trouble ticketing and routing as well as reporting on KPI’s, SLA’s, and historical analysis
- Business Management – Workflows and planning tools for intelligent financial decision making and provisioning.

CaseSentry is delivered as a service so there are no software purchase costs, no annual maintenance costs – you subscribe and ShoreGroup can do anything from support just the solution itself (software updates, etc.) to providing an outsourced support organization – i.e. ShorePatrol. Your team doesn’t have to be network management tool experts; they just need to keep on being experts at running the network.

The subscription is done on a year to year basis so if you’re not happy with the service we’re providing then you cancel at the end of the year.

The solution has an open architecture that allows you to “plug in” the services provided by any other solution – for example if you are using Remedy for your helpdesk and want to keep that.

By: Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:04:00 +0000

John: Thanks for the additional perspective. Next time I’m in the Raleigh area I will be sure to bang on your door.

By: John Kilgore

John Kilgore — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:45:03 +0000

As one of the other three Advanced Cisco Unified Communications partners in Raleigh, we took a different approach. Rather than develop some middleware or try to integrate it into our current RMM Tools, we chose to use Cisco Monitor Director (by Cisco). It has all the capabilities of reporting built in and works quite well for what we’re providing under the IPT Managed Services offerings. As an LPI partner, we have limited monitoring and management available for Call Manager, CME, Unity, etc … but we wanted a better product for managing all those devices on a granular level. Cisco Monitor director doesn’t “bridge the gap” for us, it’s a complete RMM tool. Want to backup your configs for Cisco devices on a routing basis automatically? Done. Want to have a network diagram drawn automatically? Done.

It’s my belief that trying to cram a square peg into a round hole in this case just isn’t profitable. What I’m waiting for however is some of the largest names out there (*cough* Cisco *cough* LPI) to integrate Cisco Monitor Director and Managed Workplace. As much as I’d love LPI, N-able, Kaseya or the likes to monitor Cisco devices the way I would like them to – I’m also a realist that knows Cisco products will also do the best job for their own hardware.