(Note: the kosher is not relevant to being saved by SolarWinds solutions. It's just that one of my colleagues will undoubtedly find this post and give me grief about "going treif for that software you are such a fanboy over".)
- What was life like before using SolarWinds? (Include what you were using and why you decided it was time for a change)
About 5 years ago, my current employer had installed a much more complex monitoring solution (from a company who loves the color blue with a 3-letter name that rhymes with "Buy See Gem"). The existing implementation covered 5,000 devices - mostly servers - and required a team of 8 people who spent 80% of their time keeping the solution running.
I was brought in to "make things better". Specifically:
- Increase the scope of monitoring from 5 to 10,000 devices.
- Extend monitoring to include network devices
- Expand application monitoring beyond what the current capabilities
Oh, and saving some money would be helpful.
- Which SolarWinds product(s) saved your bacon?
We started with NPM, SAM and Kiwi Syslog server to provide syslog and trap filtering.
- Did you consider other options, and why did you choose SolarWinds?
We sent out an RFP to 7 vendors for an agentless solution. Ultimately 4 responded. The SolarWinds response was the highest rated in terms of satisfying requirements and it was 10% of the price of the other bids.
- How has life been since you've rolled out SolarWinds in your environment?
We're just finishing up a 6 month conversion activity but we've already realized enormous gains. Not only did we hit all the "make it better" things, we're extending monitoring to areas that were not thought possible.
And the purchase cost of SolarWinds was 10% of the cost that just maintenance for the previous toolset would have been. Next year, SolarWinds maintenance costs drive that savings to 5%