Comments on: Open Source Monitoring: 4 Key Questions You Need to Ask http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/30/open-source-monitoring-4-key-questions-you-need-to-ask/ Managed Services Blog for Top Managed Service Providers Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:17:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Ken Vanderweel http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/30/open-source-monitoring-4-key-questions-you-need-to-ask/comment-page-1/#comment-49551 Ken Vanderweel Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:04:47 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3373#comment-49551 I’m extremely interactive with chief executives across our MSP partner base, a base that’s made up of the world’s largest, most experienced, proven, and successful MSPs. Nimsoft MSP partners are 5-25+ years in practice, global presence, have significant staff and world class facilities, thousands of brand name mid- to large-enterprise clients, massive and mixed IT infrastructures under management, early adopters of emerging technologies, and more. The key questions, insights, and guidance in this blog article are practically spelled out verbatim from the personal experience of these MSP business leaders. A constant theme and inspiration to write this article is open source monitoring tools inhibiting our MSP partner’s business optimization and growth objectives. Nimsoft continues to sign on countless numbers of MSPs at rapid rate who defect from their various open source monitoring investments (as well as various commercial monitoring tools) to realize the business growth advantages of Nimsoft Monitoring Solutions, our spirit of partnership, and unmatched support. Understand that in this article I speak for Nimsoft Monitoring Solutions contrasted against various open source monitoring tools; I am not contrasting the many other commercial monitoring tools in the marketplace (that you may have had a poor experience with) against open source monitoring tools as I do not have intimate first hand experience with those tools and MSP users. Anyone got turpentine?! Ken Vanderweel Director, Product Marketing Nimsoft, Inc. I’m extremely interactive with chief executives across our MSP partner base, a base that’s made up of the world’s largest, most experienced, proven, and successful MSPs. Nimsoft MSP partners are 5-25+ years in practice, global presence, have significant staff and world class facilities, thousands of brand name mid- to large-enterprise clients, massive and mixed IT infrastructures under management, early adopters of emerging technologies, and more. The key questions, insights, and guidance in this blog article are practically spelled out verbatim from the personal experience of these MSP business leaders. A constant theme and inspiration to write this article is open source monitoring tools inhibiting our MSP partner’s business optimization and growth objectives. Nimsoft continues to sign on countless numbers of MSPs at rapid rate who defect from their various open source monitoring investments (as well as various commercial monitoring tools) to realize the business growth advantages of Nimsoft Monitoring Solutions, our spirit of partnership, and unmatched support.

Understand that in this article I speak for Nimsoft Monitoring Solutions contrasted against various open source monitoring tools; I am not contrasting the many other commercial monitoring tools in the marketplace (that you may have had a poor experience with) against open source monitoring tools as I do not have intimate first hand experience with those tools and MSP users.

Anyone got turpentine?!

Ken Vanderweel
Director, Product Marketing
Nimsoft, Inc.

]]> By: Theodis Butler http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/30/open-source-monitoring-4-key-questions-you-need-to-ask/comment-page-1/#comment-49550 Theodis Butler Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:21:14 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3373#comment-49550 I say tarred and feathered. Reminds me of the scientist preaching to the church saying to turn away from God and trust in science. The difference is that you're the director of product marketing for an obvious commercial product--you've probably never even used an open source monitoring system. I've paid thousands for a commercial MSP product and I have demoed the open source stuff. Since most of the major players are leaning toward integrating with open source what's the holdup for Nimsoft? "Time is money, and having staff handling the development and maintenance of their own scripts has a direct, ongoing cost that MSPs need to factor in." The best MSP platforms require you to write scripts. Unfortunately there is no one fix solution for all servers and/or workstations. Last but not least if you need "support" with your open source product--pay the developers for it. You'll still save thousands. I say tarred and feathered. Reminds me of the scientist preaching to the church saying to turn away from God and trust in science. The difference is that you’re the director of product marketing for an obvious commercial product–you’ve probably never even used an open source monitoring system.

I’ve paid thousands for a commercial MSP product and I have demoed the open source stuff. Since most of the major players are leaning toward integrating with open source what’s the holdup for Nimsoft?

“Time is money, and having staff handling the development and maintenance of their own scripts has a direct, ongoing cost that MSPs need to factor in.”

The best MSP platforms require you to write scripts. Unfortunately there is no one fix solution for all servers and/or workstations. Last but not least if you need “support” with your open source product–pay the developers for it. You’ll still save thousands.

]]> By: Nick Vossburg http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/30/open-source-monitoring-4-key-questions-you-need-to-ask/comment-page-1/#comment-49508 Nick Vossburg Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:43:34 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3373#comment-49508 "While an open source product may meet the immediate needs of clients, what happens if a client needs help monitoring a virtualized or cloud computing environment?" FYI, the majority of our work is hosting and on premise virtualization. We selected Zenoss for its ability to monitor virtual machines... “While an open source product may meet the immediate needs of clients, what happens if a client needs help monitoring a virtualized or cloud computing environment?”

FYI, the majority of our work is hosting and on premise virtualization. We selected Zenoss for its ability to monitor virtual machines…

]]> By: Nick Vossburg http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/30/open-source-monitoring-4-key-questions-you-need-to-ask/comment-page-1/#comment-49507 Nick Vossburg Sun, 02 Aug 2009 20:41:41 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3373#comment-49507 We use Zenoss (www.zenoss.com), an open source monitoring platform for the Enterprise and MSPs. Initially, we did have to invest a lot of time and energy into "molding" the product to meet our needs, but we've also found the Zenoss team to be extremely helpful in overcoming specific client challenges. I cant say I've had the same experience with the traditional MSP platforms. We've also found the community incredibly helpful in troubleshooting specific issues as well as co-developing monitoring sets for client devices. I don't think there is a product out there that is excellent across the board (monitoring, asset management, ticketing, scripting, remote control etc). Our strategy will be to continue to use what is best in class for each segment of IT management. We use Zenoss (www.zenoss.com), an open source monitoring platform for the Enterprise and MSPs.

Initially, we did have to invest a lot of time and energy into “molding” the product to meet our needs, but we’ve also found the Zenoss team to be extremely helpful in overcoming specific client challenges. I cant say I’ve had the same experience with the traditional MSP platforms.

We’ve also found the community incredibly helpful in troubleshooting specific issues as well as co-developing monitoring sets for client devices.

I don’t think there is a product out there that is excellent across the board (monitoring, asset management, ticketing, scripting, remote control etc). Our strategy will be to continue to use what is best in class for each segment of IT management.

]]> By: James Kennedy http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/30/open-source-monitoring-4-key-questions-you-need-to-ask/comment-page-1/#comment-49501 James Kennedy Sat, 01 Aug 2009 19:34:48 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3373#comment-49501 I do see the point at which the MSP has to be prepared to back up thier open source solution. I have to admit that I have used commercial versions of monitoring and found it VERY complex and "tied" down. We monitor over 200 networks ranging from Novell, Linux and Windows and found that Nagios is able to be "molded" to each certain network and give us the best monitoring available. I do see the point at which the MSP has to be prepared to back up thier open source solution. I have to admit that I have used commercial versions of monitoring and found it VERY complex and “tied” down. We monitor over 200 networks ranging from Novell, Linux and Windows and found that Nagios is able to be “molded” to each certain network and give us the best monitoring available.

]]> By: Links 31/07/2009: GNU/Linux in Venezuela, Bundling Revisited | Boycott Novell http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/30/open-source-monitoring-4-key-questions-you-need-to-ask/comment-page-1/#comment-49492 Links 31/07/2009: GNU/Linux in Venezuela, Bundling Revisited | Boycott Novell Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:30:42 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3373#comment-49492 [...] Open Source Monitoring: 4 Key Questions You Need to Ask Ultimately, MSPs need to look at their DNA. Are they a product development organization or a service organization? I’d argue it’s very hard to be both. Can the MSP afford the cost and distraction of developing, maintaining, and supporting an open source monitoring product internally? [...] [...] Open Source Monitoring: 4 Key Questions You Need to Ask Ultimately, MSPs need to look at their DNA. Are they a product development organization or a service organization? I’d argue it’s very hard to be both. Can the MSP afford the cost and distraction of developing, maintaining, and supporting an open source monitoring product internally? [...]

]]> By: Brendan Cosgrove http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/30/open-source-monitoring-4-key-questions-you-need-to-ask/comment-page-1/#comment-49487 Brendan Cosgrove Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:55:34 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3373#comment-49487 I'll second Scott and say you don't need to be tarred and feathered. The part that I think rings most true is that with an open source solution the MSP has to be prepared to be their own support for the platform. If the MSP is staffed for it, then maybe that's not a huge risk, but it certainly represents a HUGE business risk if you aren't staffed to support it internally. I’ll second Scott and say you don’t need to be tarred and feathered. The part that I think rings most true is that with an open source solution the MSP has to be prepared to be their own support for the platform. If the MSP is staffed for it, then maybe that’s not a huge risk, but it certainly represents a HUGE business risk if you aren’t staffed to support it internally.

]]> By: Open Source Monitoring: Four Questions You Need to Ask @ OS-ING http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/30/open-source-monitoring-4-key-questions-you-need-to-ask/comment-page-1/#comment-49484 Open Source Monitoring: Four Questions You Need to Ask @ OS-ING Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:52:54 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3373#comment-49484 [...] Before a managed service provider (MSP) goes down the path of using an open source product for critical remote monitoring capabilities, I’d suggest you first ask four key questions. Here they are. [...] [...] Before a managed service provider (MSP) goes down the path of using an open source product for critical remote monitoring capabilities, I’d suggest you first ask four key questions. Here they are. [...]

]]> By: Joe Panettieri http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/30/open-source-monitoring-4-key-questions-you-need-to-ask/comment-page-1/#comment-49478 Joe Panettieri Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:00:41 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3373#comment-49478 Ironically, I just got off the phone with a software company that's launching a hosted and on-premise MSP tool. The challenge: It only manages PCs, servers and mobile devices running a specific version of Linux. Sounds like a powerful tool... but only if you've standardized on the vendor's Linux offering. More details next week. Ironically, I just got off the phone with a software company that’s launching a hosted and on-premise MSP tool. The challenge: It only manages PCs, servers and mobile devices running a specific version of Linux. Sounds like a powerful tool… but only if you’ve standardized on the vendor’s Linux offering. More details next week.

]]> By: Scott Cooper http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/07/30/open-source-monitoring-4-key-questions-you-need-to-ask/comment-page-1/#comment-49477 Scott Cooper Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:37:27 +0000 http://www.mspmentor.net/?p=3373#comment-49477 Far from thinking you should be tarred and feathered, I think you've addressed the subject very well. I would add a couple of things... 1. Another consideration one should make is the responsiveness of an Open Source product vs. its commercial counterparts to significant changes in the technology landscape and/or marketplace. For example, if a significant shift occurs away from client-server models or to something like a cloud infrastructure, how quickly will an Open Source product adapt vs. a commercial one? 2. There may be scenarios where it's worthwhile considering using both Open Source and commercial monitoring products together. Open Source products may offer a cost-effective alternative for less critical or very specialized systems, or where they serve a very specific purpose. In these cases, they may not create a "distraction for staff from the MSP’s core business objectives". Far from thinking you should be tarred and feathered, I think you’ve addressed the subject very well. I would add a couple of things…

1. Another consideration one should make is the responsiveness of an Open Source product vs. its commercial counterparts to significant changes in the technology landscape and/or marketplace. For example, if a significant shift occurs away from client-server models or to something like a cloud infrastructure, how quickly will an Open Source product adapt vs. a commercial one?

2. There may be scenarios where it’s worthwhile considering using both Open Source and commercial monitoring products together. Open Source products may offer a cost-effective alternative for less critical or very specialized systems, or where they serve a very specific purpose. In these cases, they may not create a “distraction for staff from the MSP’s core business objectives”.

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