INTRODUCTION
IT teams have long recognized that an enterprise-class IT management system is absolutely essential, especially given the mission-critical nature of most corporate IT networks. Yet for many years, IT executives resigned themselves to a frustrating reality: In order to fulfill their need for robust IT monitoring and management functionality, they had no alternative but to use a proprietary solution?even though these commercial platforms (such as HP OpenView and IBM Tivoli) have been widely criticized as being expensive, overly complex, and difficult to deploy and manage.
Today that picture is changing rapidly. While the need for an enterprise-class IT management solution is more acute than ever, today's IT teams now have a dramatically expanded set of options to meet this critical need. The change has come in the form of open source IT management solutions, which have rapidly matured to a level of robust functionality and reliability, much like Apache's explosive rise to dominance in web servers. In fact, in an effort to cut costs and simplify their IT management systems, companies like Cingular Wireless, TimeWarner Cable, Siemens, and TicketMaster have already embraced and now rely on open source IT management products. Successful adoption by high profile firms such as these provides concrete evidence that IT teams now have a viable and market- tested open source alternative to closed commercial systems.
IT decision-makers now have an opportunity to avoid the bitter pill of high cost, slow deployment, and complex management which typically comes with the territory in a commercial monitoring system. Instead, companies are transitioning in large numbers to open source IT management systems that deliver comparable functionality combined with greater technical agility, faster deployment, and far more management simplicity? all at a fraction of the cost of proprietary products.
COMMERCIAL TOOLS COMPL AINT: FUNCTIONALITY OVERKILL
One of the core criticisms associated with proprietary IT management tools is functionality overkill. The four vendors that now collectively control more than 60 percent of the market (BMC, Computer Associates, HP, and IBM) were all designed, first and foremost, for the upper echelon of the Fortune 100. The result, according to many users, is an overload of capabilities and features that the majority of companies do not want or need. Many Global 2000 firms now pay license costs for IT management software that reach seven figures. Deployment and system administration of these proprietary systems is more expensive than that, typically costing five to eight times the initial software licensing fee.
A typical complaint of IT teams using commercial IT management tools is the inherent difficulty in installing and configuring these proprietary systems. Getting a product such as HP OpenView or IBM Tivoli configured and deployed often takes months, even years in many cases. Once the system is installed, the closed nature of the technology and the costly investment in training and consulting result in rigid vendor lock-in scenarios. As every IT veteran knows, configuring and deploying an IT management system is never a one-time effort. Corporate networks are constantly changing in dynamic ways, which forces IT teams to maintain deep expertise in proprietary systems as their networks expand?or hire consultants on a semi-permanent basis.
Another lament concerning commercial tools is that too often they are either over deployed?resulting in burdensome maintenance?or they're under-deployed, resulting in wasteful shelf ware:
The over-deployment dilemma
This common scenario occurs when companies succumb to the temptation to turn everything on. Unfortunately, aside from the Fortune 500, most organizations don't require the extra functionality included in proprietary packages. And even if they could utilize all of that functionality, most companies simply don't have the staff to maintain it. This frequently results in poorly tuned alert and notification schemes, which can overload IT managers with false alarms and even alarm storms.
Under-deployed shelfware
Under-deployed systems don't produce the same headaches as over-deployed systems. However, the unfortunate reality in this scenario is that companies waste precious budget paying for what amounts to unused shelfware. IT executives facing the frustration of this situation are quick to point out that these are not one-time charges. Companies continue to incur costs on a recurring basis because they are forced to pay annual licensing fees for functionality they don't use.
