Even when it comes to monitoring networks, systems and applications, a picture paints a thousand words. At least that’s the thinking behind SilverBack Technologies’ InfoCare 3.0, which the Billerica, Mass.-based company will announce on Monday.
SilverBack describes InfoCare 3.0’s new Web-based Dashboard as the “industry’s simplest user interface for monitoring networks, systems and applications.”
Aimed at service providers, system integrators and mid-tier enterprises (which SilverBack identifies as companies with 1,000 to 5,000 employees), InfoCare 3.0 is designed to provide fault, performance, security and asset monitoring. An “appliance” located at the service provider or enterprise’s site allows the customer to monitor performance through the Web-based interface.
The new dashboard is designed to provide a simplified view and menu structure. SilverBack says the graphical user interface provides quick access to performance data through one integrated view. Advanced polling capabilities generate updated information for all objects being managed and monitored.
“Through the use of our latest software, service providers can add a valuable, revenue generating remote management service to their existing portfolios,” said Dan Phillips, chairman and CEO of SilverBack.
SilverBacks says that InfoCare 3.0’s Device/Customer Site Grouping feature is particularly well-suited to service providers, enabling them to manage multiple customer IT environments from a single Web-based dashboard.
 |
| SilverBack’s InfoCare 3.0 is designed to give users a graphical view of network, system and application performance. |
SilverBack’s Director of Strategic Communications Dale Allaire told ASPnews that currently 40 pecent of InfoCare customers are services providers. However, he said, the company expects that to increase to 70 percent by the fourth quarter of this year.
According to Allaire, InfoCare 3.0 offers three advantages over monitoring services provided by companies such as Hewlett-Packard, BMC, CA and others. It’s more affordable, faster to deploy and easier to use and maintain.
Pricing is $300 per device, per year. (Examples of devices are a LAN/WAN, hub, switch or router; HPUX, Linux, Solaris MS Windows or Novell operating system; or SMTP, POP3, Exchange,
Oracle, SQL or Sybase applications). InfoCare 3.0 can be deployed in a day, the company reports.
John Igoe, SilverBack’s co-founder, president and chief operating officier told ASPnews that the goal of InfoCare 3.0’s interface was to ensure that any report is only “three clicks away.”
In addition to the new dashboard-style user interface, SilverBack reports that InfoCare 3.0 includes the following new features:
- Detailed drill downs into 12-month trending. Users can improve their capacity planning capability through network and system interface performance and historical availability reports. Also, users can create reports on the network’s historical frame relay, as well as system CPU, memory and disk performance. Additional enhancements include 12-month trending on application latency, availability, and Oracle/Exchange statistics.
- Advanced and custom reporting capabilities. New granular and resizable reports enable multiple users to simultaneously create ad-hoc reports based on relevant hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly performance data. Enhanced trending and resolved issues reporting allow users to view up to 12 months of historical information on resolved faults.
- Auto reboot and wizard enhancements for advanced monitoring. Installation and monitoring capabilities improve user control during device discovery through the use of file import/editor as well as the capability to monitor CPU, memory and disk through the use of native WMI (Windows management instrumentation) services. WMI monitoring also enables the user to configure and monitor servers with no required reboot process.
- Enhanced thresholding over frame relay. Enables notification and reporting on use, congestion and throughput at the PVC (permanent virtual circuit) level. Also enables predetermined thresholding for application latency and individual disks within the system.
Do you have a comment or question about this article or the ASP industry in general? Speak out in the ASP Discussion Forum.
