Monitoring From The Cloud: Schoolwires Case Study

Guest Post:

Hello I'm Rick Stivers, and I'm the Director of Network & IT Services for Schoolwires. Schoolwires provides strategic online communication, community-management and productivity solutions to the K-12 education market. Our core product is Centricity, which brings together robust and flexible website management, community management and web 2.0/social network capabilities in a single, user-centric solution.  We also deliver Schoolwires Synergy™, a digital file sharing solution, and Schoolwires Assist™, a service request solution. We currently work with nearly 1,000 districts, over 5,000 schools and over 5 million users across the nation.

 We currently provide four different hosting models.

- ASP Hosted at our Managed Facility through Expedient Communications

- Educational Service Agency Hosted at their own facilities which serve districts in their regions.

- Client Hosted – Self Hosted at School Districts on their own equipment

- Schoolwires Appliance – Schoolwires maintained equipment at School Districts.

Over the past year we have really pushed toward the cloud. We implemented an Enterprise VMware Architecture with High Availability, DRS, and VMotion. One benefit of this push was higher reliability on the hardware side and reduction of our server footprint.

We began working with Monitis roughly two years ago. At the time I was unhappy with the current solution I inherited. It was a solution which required our own server, and was not robust enough for the number of sites we needed to monitor. We did an exhausting search and were just not happy with what we were finding due to the number of sites we needed to monitor and the ROI for many solutions were not cost effective. I found Mon.it.or.us, and immediately liked what I saw during the trial process. I really liked the fact that they provided a solution along the same model as ours (SaaS), and that it was priced very competitively. It could also scale to the number of sites we currently had (more than 1200) and where we expected to be in 3 years. The interface was also very user friendly and with the AJAX interfaces felt more like a desktop application than a web tool. The reports are very helpful, and really allow us to focus our attention on the lower performing sites. Monitis allows easy exporting of raw data. This has helped with productivity, because I can easily categorize reports based on hosting type and really pinpoint issues related to the location. I also liked that they were innovating and really willing to listen to feedback on feature requests. One of the real benefits of their solution is that it gives an independent view on our sites SLA numbers. Unlike software we load internally on our network and which increases our cost because it's another server and application we need to manage.

Part of my job description requires that our sites maintain a certain SLA, and without Monitis this would be difficult to track and maintain. The downtime alerts are very accurate and allow us to respond quickly to service outages. We really value this partnership and will continue to work with Monitis to help improve their product and services. Thank you...

Rick Stivers, the Director of Network & IT Services for Schoolwires

Choosing the Right Monitoring Solution

So, you've migrated to the cloud, or at least you're considering it, and now you want to employ a monitoring solution. Good decision.

After all, enterprise networks are getting more complex as globalization continues to rage – despite the recession. And outsourcing and the growth of wireless are expanding networks beyond their traditional reach. Consider, too, that IT departments are being asked to guarantee that applications and services run well across both private and public networks.

Beyond that, the rise and growth of virtualization and cloud computing makes the job of monitoring and troubleshooting all the components of a computing network even more of a challenge. Why? Because virtualization removes the hardware from the application and creates traffic more difficult to monitor and troubleshoot. And with cloud computing, apps are not housed on the existing enterprise infrastructure and instead reside over the public network. Because ownership of the issue is now shared between the IT staff and your cloud service provider, it makes it even more difficult to correctly identify and track down performance issues.

So the heat is on; and ratchets the pressure up a notch with CIOs demanding cost reduction and higher service levels. All in all, it means finding ways to work more efficiently and effectively. And the right network management tools will offer you the right mix of products that meet both your monitoring and management needs.

So what kinds of capabilities should you look for in a network management system? In this post, I'll focus on the generalities, and then in subsequent posts, I'll discuss specific vendors that might be useful to you.

First, because change is a constant, not only in business but in life, too, IT must keep the network up and running regardless of moves, additions and changes. While network management solutions were once built solely to manage devices, now they're more complex because they have to manage new types of traffic – such as voice and streaming video which are very latency sensitive. Plus, now that private corporate networks are on the public Internet, there are new concerns that IT must be concerned about – such as traffic levels and security issues.

So, consequently, it's important to consider solutions that can monitor:

- network traffic

- end-user activities

- applications

- networking protocols

- servers

- network hardware

- virtual machines

- protocols

- cloud platforms

You need these elements for a complete end-to-end picture of network health.

These individual elements are necessary for the whole because, too often, when there are performance problems, the network is the first to be blamed. In fact, the problem could just as easily be an application glitch or trouble with end-user activities. Monitoring provides IT with a more proactive rather than reactive approach – as it will help mitigate problems before they happen and reduce mean time between failures.

Right now, unfortunately, most enterprise IT network departments use many disparate tools to try and improve visibility. Plus, IT departments are too often structured into distinct organizations, and that only compounds the problem because information isn't shared. For greater visibility, things must change, and IT groups must work to share information in order to be proactive.

Network management suites have expanded well beyond monitoring just devices, and this broader view helps networking engineers determine potential bottlenecks before they happen. Putting the right enterprise network management solution in place sheds light on the entire network and improves overall network stability and reliability.

At Monitis, our end-to-end monitoring system offers:

- True 1 min frequency monitoring simultaneously from multiple locations in America, Europe, Asia and Australia

- The ability to customize and set up your own monitoring locations

- No false alarms - failures verified across multiple locations

- Monitors websites, e-Mail servers, firewalls, VoIP, databases, Domain Name Servers, routers, Web Servers from end user perspective

- Supported protocols - HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, SSH, PING, TCP, UDP, SIP, MySQL, DNS.

- Internal server and network monitoring including CPU, Memory, Server Processes, Bandwidth, SNMP, telnet.

- Web page content check - specify string to be checked for existence/non-existence on web page

- WebMap view - see all your servers and web sites in the single map view

 

Transaction Monitoring Enhancements: the Best Cloud-based Monitoring Suite Just Got Better

San Jose, CA – March 25, 2010 – Monitis, the leading provider of 100% Cloud-based network and systems monitoring solutions, today announced significant enhancements to its transaction-monitoring tool, enabling important new features and reports.

Monitis' suite of all-in-one internal and external monitoring tools, already the category standard for feature robustness and ease-of-use, is adding to its transaction monitoring capabilities with:

• The ability to show all resources downloaded during the test flow using detailed information like DNS lookup time, first bite download time, and full-content download-time.
  
• The ability to add transaction-step reporting for different periods and see the average time for each step to discover transaction flow bottlenecks.
  
• The ability to monitor from a new European location – the Netherlands.
  

 

Hovhannes Avoyan, Monitis' Founder and CEO, commented, "For e-commerce businesses across the Web, there is no better, all-in-one system than Monitis. Our transaction-monitoring continues to break new ground and innovate faster than the rest."

 

About Monitis All-in-One Monitoring Platform

Monitis is a 100% Cloud-based, comprehensive, yet flexible, IT monitoring solution that consolidates backend, application, and cloud monitoring in an all-in-one, central monitoring service. The platform is easily customizable and may be used for managing of all kinds of IT assets such as websites, servers, routers, switches, VoIP devices, DNS, databases, processes and any other IP devices.  Monitis provides users with a comprehensive view of their system's health and performance. 

About Monitis

Monitis believes that the Cloud is the biggest thing to happen in IT management since IT management. Having seen this vision early, Monitis is now the global leader in developing this market.  It is the first affordable network and systems monitoring solution based 100% in the Cloud.  More than 50,000 customers from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies to government agencies and educational institutions have chosen Monitis to reduce system downtime, improve the productivity of their IT staff, and reduce operational expenditures. 

Monitis was founded in 2005 by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and fed-up and worn-out developers who were tired of complaining about the limits of software-based tools, while inspired by the promise of the Cloud.  Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Monitis is lead by a team of IT professionals with deep experience running enterprise-grade IT businesses, as well as starting and selling several IT start-ups.  Using a global workforce, particularly its R&D team based in Yerevan, Armenia, Monitis is poised to move from strength to strength.  At present, it has a loyal and enthusiastic user community of 50,000, and an average month-on-month revenue growth of over 10%.

Contact:

Monitis Inc.

Sales & Marketing Department

info@monitis.com

http://www.monitis.com

US & Canada Toll Free: +1-800-657-7949

UK + International: +44-845-527-3346

France + International: +33-48-607-9035

2880 Zanker Road Suite 203

San Jose, CA-95134

USA

 

Improving its UI, the Best Systems and Network Monitoring Suite Just Got Better

San Jose, CA – March 18, 2010 – Monitis, the leading provider of 100% Cloud-based network and systems monitoring solutions, today announced a major overhaul and upgrade of it's user interface designed to make the world's most innovative suite of monitoring tools even more user-friendly.

First-generation and second-generation internal and external monitoring systems have been notoriously complex and difficult to use. When it launched, Monitis' third generation suite of monitoring tools fundamentally changed this dynamic. With it's latest UI upgrade, the user experience has been made even simpler. The new changes include:

• A new internal monitoring wizard. The new wizard helps users get set-up faster with no complexity or hassle. The steps in the new wizard are now easier to follow and now enable simultaneous setup of multiple agents (bulk add) and of multiple test types (CPU, process, etc).
  
• New options in the toolbar. The toolbar now enables users to change the number of columns, enable/disable flash charts, and collapse/expand modules directly from dashboard's toolbar. The Help section has also been revised.
  
• Improved visibility and access in the tab bar. The size of the tab bar has been increased, allowing users to see more tabs without scrolling. The tab carousel has also been improved, making it more convenient to scroll and switch between tabs.
  
• Significant performance enhancements for IE users.
  

Hovhannes Avoyan, Monitis' Founder and CEO, commented, "We already had the easiest-to-use all-in-one monitoring suite on the market. With our most recent UI overhaul and upgrade, we've gone from strength to strength. As per usual, we've been relentless in our pursuit of ways to help IT managers and system administrators save time."

 

About Monitis All-in-One Monitoring Platform

Monitis is a 100% Cloud-based, comprehensive, yet flexible, IT monitoring solution that consolidates backend, application, and cloud monitoring in an all-in-one, central monitoring service. The platform is easily customizable and may be used for managing of all kinds of IT assets such as websites, servers, routers, switches, VoIP devices, DNS, databases, processes and any other IP devices.  Monitis provides users with a comprehensive view of their system's health and performance. 

About Monitis

Monitis believes that the Cloud is the biggest thing to happen in IT management since IT management. Having seen this vision early, Monitis is now the global leader in developing this market.  It is the first affordable network and systems monitoring solution based 100% in the Cloud.  More than 50,000 customers from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies to government agencies and educational institutions have chosen Monitis to reduce system downtime, improve the productivity of their IT staff, and reduce operational expenditures. 

Monitis was founded in 2005 by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and fed-up and worn-out developers who were tired of complaining about the limits of software-based tools, while inspired by the promise of the Cloud.  Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Monitis is lead by a team of IT professionals with deep experience running enterprise-grade IT businesses, as well as starting and selling several IT start-ups.  Using a global workforce, particularly its R&D team based in Yerevan, Armenia, Monitis is poised to move from strength to strength.  At present, it has a loyal and enthusiastic user community of 50,000, and an average month-on-month revenue growth of over 10%.

Contact:
Monitis Inc.
Sales & Marketing Department
info@monitis.com
http://www.monitis.com
US & Canada Toll Free: +1-800-657-7949
UK + International: +44-845-527-3346
France + International: +33-48-607-9035
2880 Zanker Road Suite 203
San Jose, CA-95134
USA

 

A World-Class Website for a Revolutionary Service

San Jose, CA – March 11, 2010 – Monitis, the leading provider of affordable, easy-to-use, 100% Cloud-based, network and systems monitoring solutions, today announced that it has launched a totally new and completely revamped website.

This addition caps a 12 month period in which Monitis has doubled its user base, won the 451 Group's prestigious "Most Innovative Start-up" award for 2009, and driven a development schedule and roll out of one game-changing product after another.

According to Founder and CEO Hovhannes Avoyan, "Our Cloud-based, SaaS-driven, all-in-one suite internal and external monitoring tools is so far ahead of the game, that likely for the last 12 months and certainly for the last 6 months, there has been absolutely no comparison between the value and difference-making features we offer and the rest of the competition. Yet, until now our website didn't reflect our radical advantages. As of today, this is no longer the case. We finally have a site worthy of our offering."

The core of the new Monitis site is already live and a bevy of new features and additions will be streamed on-line in the weeks to come.

About Monitis All-in-One Monitoring Platform

Monitis is the only service which provides Cloud Monitoring from the Cloud.  It is leading a new era of systems management tools – the Cloud generation.  Monitis is a 100% Cloud-based, complete, and flexible IT monitoring solution, offered on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. Monitis consolidates backend monitoring, application monitoring, website monitoring, and cloud monitoring in an all-in-one, central monitoring service. The platform is easily customizable and may be used for managing of all kinds of IT assets such as websites, servers, routers, switches, VoIP devices, DNS, databases, processes and any other IP devices.  Monitis provides users with a comprehensive view of their system's health and performance. 

 

About Monitis

Monitis believes that the Cloud is the biggest thing to happen in IT management since IT management. Having seen this vision early, Monitis is now the global leader in developing this market.  It is the first affordable network and systems monitoring solution based 100% in the Cloud. 

Besides Monitis' enthusiastic and loyal user base of 50,000 customers from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies to government agencies and educational institutions, Monitis has won rave reviews from the technology analyst community. Recently, because it's Cloud-based monitoring helps companies reduce system downtime, improve the productivity of their IT staff, and reduce operational expenditures, Monitis was named the Most Innovative Start-up for 2009 by The 451 Group at their annual Client Conference.  

Monitis was founded in 2005 by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and fed-up and worn-out developers who were tired of complaining about the limits of software-based tools, while inspired by the promise of the Cloud.  Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Monitis is lead by a team of IT professionals with deep experience running enterprise-grade IT businesses, as well as starting and selling several IT start-ups.  Using a global workforce, particularly its R&D team based in Yerevan, Armenia, Monitis is poised to move from strength to strength.  At present, it has a loyal and enthusiastic user community of 50,000, and an average month-on-month revenue growth of over 10%.

Contact:

Monitis Inc.

Sales & Marketing Department

info@monitis.com

http://www.monitis.com

US & Canada Toll Free: +1-800-657-7949

UK + International: +44-845-527-3346

France + International: +33-48-607-9035

2880 Zanker Road Suite 203

San Jose, CA-95134

USA

 

 

Saving IT Managers Time: Monitis Now Partners GoGrid in SLA 3rd Party Monitoring

San Jose, CA – February 25, 2010 – Monitis, the leading provider of affordable, easy-to-use, 100% Cloud-based, network and systems monitoring solutions, today announced that it has opened yet another front in its battle to save IT managers' time - it has integrated its Universal Cloud Monitoring Framework with GoGrid's cloud services, thereby enabling massive time savings for GoGrid's customers.

Monitis' Universal Cloud Monitoring Framework automates monitoring in highly dynamic cloud environments, where customers' servers may be added and terminated according to the load by management software or manually.

Given this dynamism, setting up end-user experience monitoring can become a tedious, resource intensive, and error-prone process. Monitis' Universal Cloud Monitoring Framework automates the configuration of external monitoring and server monitoring tools every time a new installation is called for - saving IT managers and system administrators around the world enormous time and hassle.

In addition to saving IT managers' time, Monitis' Universal Cloud Monitoring Framework gives users the confidence that comes from using a 3rd party tool to monitor Cloud infrastructure in an independent manner.  Even when Cloud computing providers provide some sort of monitoring, there is an inherent conflict of interest – as they are keen to show higher uptime. By providing a customized, independent audit of SLAs (service level agreements), Monitis' Universal Cloud Monitoring Framework increases the credibility of Cloud computing providers claims, which ultimately benefits both users and the industry, as a whole.

Monitis already provides this service for Amazon and Rackspace clients, but with the addition of GoGrid, it now provides 3rd-party SLA verification for the industry's top 3 cloud hosting providers. Said Monitis' Founder and CEO, Hovhannes Avoyan, "In the pursuit of saving IT managers massive amounts of time, no one is even close to offering what we do. Our new partnership with GoGrid will continue to cement our lead as the new industry standard in Cloud monitoring."

 

Hallo Holland! Monitis Adds a New Monitoring Location in the Netherlands

San Jose, CA – February 19, 2010 – Monitis, the leading provider of 100% Cloud-based network and systems monitoring solutions, today announced the deployment of another monitoring node, this time in the Netherlands. This brings to 9 the number of Monitis monitoring nodes available worldwide, and the third in Europe along with the UK and Germany. This is in addition to Monitis' exclusive ability to offer IT managers nodes from custom locations of their choosing.

What makes Monitis' nodes so unique is their True One-Minute Monitoring. This means that each of Monitis' 9 nodes is monitoring a client's site every minute. This is not the case with most other companies that claim to offer one-minute monitoring, but instead only monitor once minute from one individual location, not from all of their nodes. If a monitoring service is offering 100 nodes, each node is typically only activated once every 100 minutes.

Hovhannes Avoyan, Monitis' Founder and CEO, commented, "The Netherlands is of strategic importance for us, as so much of the European IT industry is based there. With this node and the others soon to be deployed across Europe, Monitis' True One-Minute Monitoring is changing the game and setting a new standard."

About Monitis All-in-One Monitoring Platform

Monitis is a 100% Cloud-based, complete, and flexible IT monitoring solution which consolidates backend, application, and cloud monitoring in an all-in-one, central monitoring service. The platform is easily customizable and may be used for managing of all kinds of IT assets such as websites, servers, routers, switches, VoIP devices, DNS, databases, processes and any other IP devices.  Monitis provides users with a comprehensive view of their system's health and performance. 

About Monitis

Monitis believes that the Cloud is the biggest thing to happen in IT management since IT management. Having seen this vision early, Monitis is now the global leader in developing this market.  It is the first affordable network and systems monitoring solution based 100% in the Cloud.  More than 50,000 customers from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies to government agencies and educational institutions have chosen Monitis to reduce system downtime, improve the productivity of their IT staff, and reduce operational expenditures. 

Monitis was founded in 2005 by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and fed-up and worn-out developers who were tired of complaining about the limits of software-based tools, while inspired by the promise of the Cloud.  Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Monitis is lead by a team of IT professionals with deep experience running enterprise-grade IT businesses, as well as starting and selling several IT start-ups.  Using a global workforce, particularly its R&D team based in Yerevan, Armenia, Monitis is poised to move from strength to strength.  At present, it has a loyal and enthusiastic user community of 50,000, and an average month-on-month revenue growth of over 12%.