Aternity: The Value of User-Centric Monitoring
Most of the virtualization products I've been exposed to over the last six months look at virtualization from an IT perspective. How well is P2V working? Are we getting up to, or over, 50 percent server utilization through consolidation? BladeCenter or System p?
One thing I don't hear as much about is the end user experience. All this virtualization technology is extremely cool from a geek's point of view, but ultimately, IT's primary job is to keep users happy. That's the philosophy behind an intriguing 2005 startup called Aternity. Their product, Frontline Performance Intelligence, sees the network from the user's point of view, rather than being datacenter-centric.
For example, let's say a group of users in your Boise branch are having problems with Outlook. Since Frontline Performance Intelligence is monitoring application and desktop performance (for instance, how long it takes to open apps, how long it's taking to send and receive e-mail, and so on), it knows right away that there's a problem, and alerts the help desk -- maybe even before the calls start flooding in. Its analytics are already at work, trying to determine the root of the problem. Ah, it looks like an Exchange Server misconfiguration is the culprit. The help desk springs into action and solves the problem, rather than spending a half hour, hour or more researching the issue.
Pretty cool, huh?
I haven't seen Frontline Performance Intelligence in action, but I love the concept and different way of looking at things the company takes. Definitely worth watching.
Posted by Keith Ward on 05/30/2008 at 12:48 PM