Event correlation and you -- Vendors
By Dennis Drogseth
Network World, 09/11/00
Event correlation is becoming a part of broader management offerings. The following types of vendors operate in this market.
Focused event-correlation vendors
Event correlation began and is still largely best understood as a single, focused product. While these products bring powerful technology to bear on root cause, they're limited because they don't extend much into performance or service areas.
Vendors include Systems Management ARTS, Veritas Software and Oxydian.
Framework providers
Frameworks have been classic examples of build-your-own rules-based software, but this is beginning to change. Examples in this category include Hewlett-Packard's Event Correlation System, Computer Associate's Neugent technology and Aprisma's Spectrum.
Frameworks and platforms offer the advantage of broad, comprehensive solutions, but tend to be more costly and time-consuming to deploy than more-focused products.
Management software suite and service-level management vendors
Several vendors offer event-correlation software suites, many of which have strong roots in service-level management (SLM). These are designed to put fault and performance data in context of how it impacts a service.
Examples of automated management suites include OpenRiver from Riversoft, one of
Network World's 10 start-ups to watch in 2000. SLM-based products come from vendors such as Visual Networks, Micromuse and Tavve Software.
Performance-management vendors
There is a long list of performance management vendors of various flavors from platform vendor Concord Communications to NetScout Systems, which offers remote monitoring-based capabilities, and Agilent Technologies, which offers performance plus troubleshooting on some level. None of these vendors do event correlation per se, but their products complement event-correlation software. That said, Loran Technologies is unique with its Service Operations Center, which is built around highly dynamic topology and weather-map-like, performance-based root cause.
Drogseth is a director at EMA and co-author of Network World's
"Network Systems Management" newsletter.
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Event correlation and you: Definitions
