Why Fidelia is worth a second look
 
|
|||
 | |||
|
Sign up to receive this and other networking newsletters in your inbox.
Satisfying users in midtier enterprises and below is nontrivial. For the most part they are an abused population that ends up with products that are large, expensive, and difficult to deploy. The alternative until recently has generally been an array of point products that work well in isolation but become a sea of "pointless products" without a more compelling, aggregated view.
Recently, however, I've had the pleasure to comment on two product sets - Op Center from Network Harmoni and SilverBack's suite of applications - that both have significant capabilities for this unaddressed market. Op Center focuses on help desk and operations, and SilverBack has facile and broad-based remote management.
This column looks at Fidelia's NetVigil, a product that midtier users can thrive on, with well-integrated performance and fault management, a versatile Web-based GUI, significant ease of use and installation, and reasonably flexible customization - although this last feature can be an area for improvement. In other words, if you are a midsize or small enterprise and want a versatile, well-integrated single product, Fidelia is a good choice.
NetVigil has Data Gathering Elements (DGE) to incorporate data from a wide range of sources, including: SNMP traps and syslogs; Border Gateway Protocol; Open Shortest Path First; firewall and RMON sources; application sources ranging from Oracle and BEA WebLogic to Apache, Radius, DNS, LDAP and SQL queries; and system sources such as CPU, disk and memory. In other words, NetVigil targets infrastructure, not simply a single domain. Third-party sources (Hewlett-Packard's Network Node Manager and Measureware agents are examples) can also be tapped for data.
The DGEs each retain their own database. Based on policies in the NetVigil Configuration Database, they send information to the Business Visibility Engine. Once configuration policies are assimilated at the DGE level, they can function independently for better scalability and performance. One area of growth for Fidelia is to evolve the Configuration Database to be more distributed, both for scalability and to avoid a single point of failure.
Users can administer policies based on geography and service. Because NetVigil has solid historical as well as real-time reporting capabilities, users can also enjoy applications ranging from IT utilization reports aimed at dollars-and-cents resource planning to historical records to help solve persistent performance or tricky availability problems.
Most NetVigil installations are in the $25,000 to $50,000 range - which is still a significant investment for midtier enterprises, but is cost effective in terms of advantages in the breadth and integration of functionality. If you are a midtier business with some level of in-house technical expertise and want to take on a versatile, easily deployed product, NetVigil offers some strong advantages.
RELATED LINKS
Network World, 11/18/02
Auspex software tracks file changes
Network World, 11/18/02
Dennis Drogseth is a director with Enterprise Management Associates, a leading analyst and market research firm based in Boulder, Colorado, focusing exclusively on all aspects of enterprise management. Dennis has extensive experience in network management platforms and products and is researching trends in management software and changing IT roles internationally. His 18-plus years of experience in high-tech includes positions at IBM and Cabletron. He has been quoted in the press and is a speaker at industry events. He can be reached via e-mail.
Audrey Rasmussen is a research director with Enterprise Management Associates in Boulder, Colorado, a leading analyst and market research firm focusing exclusively on all aspects of enterprise management. Audrey has more than 20 years of experience working with distributed systems, applications and networks. Her current focus at EMA is e-business, SMB/SME and MSPs. She can be reached via e-mail.
Enterprise Management Associates in Boulder, Colorado, is a leading analyst and market research firm focusing exclusively on all aspects of enterprise management software and services.
