WhatsUp Gold grows up

Ipswitch this week updated its WhatsUp Gold flagship software with a Web framework, IPv6 support and more than 100 customizable reports to help customers reduce outages and complexity in their environments, the company says.

In this release, WhatsUp Gold version 11, the company added a Web application interface that uses JavaScript and AJAX technology to provide an alternative interface for IT managers. Customers also can choose to use the existing console interface.

WhatsUp Gold v11 also includes a workspace feature that lets customers set up or assign personalized dashboard interfaces based on various roles in the company. For instance, a dashboard could include network and systems drill-down capabilities specific to the administrators responsibilities, or the devices and servers the admin manages daily. This feature also includes more than 100 customizable reports.

In addition, this version includes 50 enhanced full reports that let customers generate and distribute graphical or text reports to managers, peers or executives. And with enhanced IPv6 monitoring, WhatsUp Gold users can monitor those platforms alongside IPv4 platforms.

WhatsUp Gold v11 installs on a dedicated server, performs an auto-discovery and reports to IT managers through a Web interface on network, system and application availability. The software uses standard protocols such as SNMP and Microsoft's Windows Management Instrumentation to collect response time, utilization and other metrics from network, systems and applications.

Ipswitch competes with vendors such as Heroix, Kace and SolarWinds and open source offerings from newcomers such as Zenoss.

Ennio Carboni, director of products at Ipswitch, says this release will keep customers ahead of chaos in their IT shops while providing ease of use in the monitoring application.

WhatsUp Gold v11 is priced based on the number of managed devices. The Premium Edition, which includes more application monitoring features than the standard product, costs between $2,600 and $7,000 for as many as 100 and more than 1,000 devices, respectively. The Standard Edition costs $2,000 for as many as 100 devices and $5,300 for more than 1,000 devices.