| | Central Maine Power turns to WhatsUp Gold to monitor more than 200 devices -- switches, hubs, routers servers -- to keep the corporate intranet humming
As Central Maine Power phased out its Cabletron network gear, the Spectrum management platform used to monitor that equipment became overkill.
Still, the utility company needed to effectively monitor more than 200 devices--switches, hubs, routers servers--to keep the corporate intranet humming.
The IT department has "service level agreements with internal customers" that have to be met, said Phil Morneault, a network specialist at the company.
To achieve that goal, Central Maine Power turned to Ipswitch Inc., which earlier this month released a new version of the WhatsUp Gold network monitoring software [March 2000, Version 5.0]. He chose it rather than to continue to use the more costly Spectrum. Although he considered HP OpenView, he regarded that as more complicated. Castle Rock's SNMPc was considered, but while it provides network management, it doesn't provide alerting capabilities, Morneault said.
WhatsUp Gold 5.0 includes a new hierarchical mapping feature called SmartScan that makes it easier for IT administrators to view complex network topologies and large numbers of network devices. Additionally, a new Crystal Reports Runtime plug-in lets IT operators monitor critical applications from the office or a remote location.
These features are critical for Central Maine Power to keep track of its Cisco hubs, routers and switches, LDAP-based directory servers and legacy devices, Morneault noted.
For example, the company would have needed an expensive tool kit to customize Spectrum to monitor the data streams of its legacy PBX system. However, with WhatsUp Gold, administrators can easily import specific device management information bases into the software and drill down to view any status changes, he noted.
Additionally, the Spectrum modules for monitoring Cisco devices and the matrix were too expensive to develop a Web front end for the platform, he said. The company "had money budgeted this year to add a Web front end on Spectrum," but Morneault said the matrix would have cost $10,000 and required more hardware.
WhatsUp Gold software also works with tools that Central Maine Power has already employed, such as CiscoWorks device-management software, and Attention Software tools, which alert administrators when network problems occur, he added. The company also uses Concord Communications performance-management software to gauge device availability.
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