“For over 10 years I’ve monitored my entire infrastructure with Goliath Performance Monitor, which includes VMware vSphere monitoring. I meet with many companies and vendors in my daily activities and I believe this product provides the best overall combination of features and functionality. GPM is the best value I have seen.”
– Jim Vigotty, IT Manager at Grace/Mayer Insurance Agency
The Business Challenge
Eleven years ago as a newly hired IT Manager, I did an assessment of the IT infrastructure, which included how we monitor VMware vSphere, for which I was now responsible. One of the key areas that I targeted was the automation of our vSphere monitoring.
My goal was to procure a vSphere performance monitoring solution that would allow me to accomplish my goals of capacity planning, predictive failure analysis, troubleshooting and automated remediation. Without adequate technology, these goals are either impossible or very time-consuming and, as a result, I would be in danger of breaking one of my key IT Rules: Thou shalt be the first to know if a system goes down.
The chosen technology had to have the ability to capture adequate data from disparate VMware vSphere servers and work stations and present the vSphere metrics in such a way that they were actionable. Furthermore, the vSphere performance monitoring functionality had to be both deep and flexible enough to allow me to set thresholds that alert and/or initiate fix actions. Finally, the cost of the required functionality needed to fit within a tight budget.
The selection criteria, though straightforward, proved to be a challenging set of requirements for vSphere performance monitoring vendors. I evaluated a host of free ware products as well as HP Openview, Tivoli, Kaseya, SolarWinds, and Goliath Performance Monitor for monitoring vSphere and the rest of my infrastructure. During the course of our evaluation, we disqualified products for one or more of the following reasons: ease of use, functionality, scalability, flexibility, or cost.
The Solution
We selected Goliath Performance Monitor for vSphere performance monitoring because the solution has the best combination of my key criteria for vSphere performance monitoring. I believe that first aspect was noticed with the ease of installation and configuration. The preconfigured VMware vSphere monitoring rules allowed me to easily begin proactive VMware vSphere monitoring.
I was able to customize my trending reports, alert notifications, and filtering events so that I received essential information and not the “noise.” Then I set up event triggers that would send e-mail and text notifications so I was aware of any potential issues and initiate automated recovery actions so that I could manage these critical events immediately without human interaction. I have Goliath Performance Monitor send me both, as I want the immediacy of a text message and the history of the email notification for my logs.
The Result
I was able to automate my system monitoring because of Goliath’s deep understanding of key metrics to monitor within the infrastructure. The technology comes with out-of-the-box monitoring rules and alerts so they took most of the guesswork out of installation and management. The ease of use, functionality, scalability, flexibility and cost of the Goliath Performance Monitor provided us with the most comprehensive tool, for the best value, we found in the marketplace, which is why we selected Goliath Technologies.
About Grace/Mayer Insurance
Jim Vigotty, IT Manager at Grace/Mayer Insurance Agency, Inc, is responsible for monitoring the entire IT infrastructure.Grace/Mayer is one of leading independent insurance agencies in the Midwest. The agency’s foundation, since 1917 has been providing Property and Casualty, Employee Benefits, Financial and Estate, and Personal insurance business services. While we are proud to be locally owned and operated out of Omaha, Nebraska, we provide coverage for clients throughout the United States, as well as internationally.
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