* Reader concerned with tying together different management products
I recently invited readers to let me know what topics you’d like to see more about – and today’s article happens to be on one of those reader-requested topics.
A reader wrote:
“The problem we face is twofold. We have budgeted money over the years for ‘needed IT tools,’ and yes, everyone quick does a search on the Internet, a little reading and a budget and purchase is produced. What we have now is a collection of security tools (Cisco Works VPN/VMS, RealSecure ISS and Checkpoint Smart Console), network equipment management tools (Cisco Works and Visual Networks), server management tools (HP Insight Manager and Bindview), and OpenView. All produce their own logs, own reports – but nothing ties everything together (logs and reports) and we don’t have the time to research the solution. I have talked with other friends in the industry and they face similar issues. What is the right solution for bringing everything together and being able to produce reports from one system and at the same time aid in pinpointing where the problem lies when someone says that say PeopleSoft is running slow?”
There are several responses to this question, depending on what this company is looking to do and how much it wants to invest. It could take a variety of approaches, some more sophisticated than others, and some requiring more of an investment than others.
At the lowest level, if tackling the issue of separate logs is something the company would like to do, there are some products that manage log data. Examples of management vendors that offer products like this are LogLogic and Cisco (from its recent acquisition of Protego Networks). These are only examples. In addition, there is some industry activity that bears some hope for the future. IBM has developed a standard format for logs called the Common Base Event format. The idea is to have a consistent format for log data, so logs can be more easily read and processed. However, adoption of the standard by other management vendors must first happen to allow for easy integration of log data.
If the company would like an application- or service-oriented tool that can pull together data from disparate sources and provide a broader service view and analysis – which would solve the problem of knowing what is happening with an application like PeopleSoft – there are tools from Singlestep, Managed Objects, Proxima Technology, Indicative, Computer Associates, HP, BMC and IBM that can pull in data from disparate sources to provide the broader service view. Bear in mind that this is not an exhaustive list of the possible tools, just examples.
Another possible solution for this company depends on whether PeopleSoft is considered a business-critical application for the company. If it is, another alternative would be to purchase an application management tool specifically designed to manage PeopleSoft.
There are probably other products that may work for this company, but these are a few of the alternatives. Again, their course of action depends on the level of “fixing the problem” that they would like to accomplish, and as usual, available budget ultimately decides on the sophistication of the solution.
