Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:11:17 -0500 From: ralphmitchell at gmail.com To: hobbit at hswn.dk Subject: Re: [hobbit] Wanna show off.
Where I last worked, the company is managing a lot of webservers and other servers for airlines, travel companies, etc. One reason given for not using free/open source things is that they're not backed by a multi-million dollar company with support contracts and so on. They like to show off the NOC and Enterprise Command Centers to prospective customers and point out the various monitors by CA, HP and other big names.
This is one of xymon drawbacks to compete with other System Monitoring solutions. This point is a valid business concern. We really need to persuade Henrik(or others) to setup a xymon support company. I will be the first to buy the technical support.
tj
Ralph Mitchell
On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 6:14 PM,> wrote:
I would agree entirely. Having managed an IT Operations section of around 120 IT staff, I had the same issue with my CIO. Forget about the tool and go and spec the requirements (or help spec them). Then lay down the alternatives. One of the advantages of hobbit is that you can demo it at no cost and very little time. Manager's dont like to spend money if they dont have to, but at the same time are averse to risk so do not want to go down a path that may cost them money and time. I small demo of Hobbit (or if you already have it running ) may prove to be the clincher.
OTOH, if another tool provides the features that hobbit cant without extensive effort then hobbit may not be the answer. (I am now ducking behind my desk in order to avoid the flames).
David Peters
+61 2 63913565
+61 4 17863572
From: Buchan Milne>
To: hobbit at hswn.dk
Cc: "Neil Franken">
Date: 29/06/2009 07:16 PM
Subject: Re: [hobbit] Wanna show off.
On Monday 29 June 2009 08:32:00 Neil Franken wrote:
Where can I find the Hobbit User list? Our company is being monitored by
Xymon but we have a new manager here that suffers from MS mania. He now
wants to spend a couple of thousand dollars on a new monitoring system.
I am not going to back down without a fight so if I can show him this
list maybe he will realize the error of his ways.
From a business perspective, there may not be an error in his ways.
Frankly, a business needs to ensure that their requirements are met in a cost
effective manner.
So, I would start out from the standpoint that your monitoring tools may not
necessarily satisfy the business requirements, and that you are happy to work
with him to document the monitoring requirements. Once they are documented,
show that you can satisfy all the monitoring requirements with a lower cost,
and no businessman will decide against you.
Don't fight, cooperate to show that you take the business needs into account,
and have actually satisfied them.
If there are any monitoring requirements you don't meet yet ... identify them
and let's see if we can provide options, before you have to report.
I can however note that at least two ISPs in South Africa run Hobbit/Xymon
(and Devmon). A recent sporting event in South Africa used Hobbit for
monitoring components of the network ...
I can give you some more examples off-list.
Regards,
Buchan
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