{"id":10878,"date":"2010-09-23T08:37:27","date_gmt":"2010-09-23T08:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=10878"},"modified":"2010-09-23T08:37:27","modified_gmt":"2010-09-23T08:37:27","slug":"oracle-on-their-internal-systems-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=10878","title":{"rendered":"Oracle On Their Internal Systems Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just read a story <\/a>about how Oracle consolidated their internal systems management\u00a0\u00a0 They decided to invest in a legacy-style solution<\/a> based on SNMP and ping.\u00a0 One of the things I noticed was that Oracle wanted to do lots of customization, be able to get access to the underneath data so they could manipulate it, integrate it, etc.<\/p>\n

This is how<\/em> not to do monitoring in a modern IT infrastructure.<\/p>\n

In 1st year of college, we were taught about different ways you could buy software:<\/p>\n

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  1. Write it yourself: Takes lots of time\/skills and has hidden longterm costs.<\/li>\n
  2. Buy or download something cheap off the shelf that does 80% of what you need.\u00a0 You spend a very long time trying to get the other 20%.\u00a0 It ends up not working quite right and it costs you a fortune, especially when it fails and you have to replace it – of course, the more common approach is to live with the failure and pitch a\u00a0story that it is fantastic.\u00a0 I call this the “I’m in government” approach.<\/li>\n
  3. Spend a little bit more money up front, buy a solution that does what you need, is easily customizable, and will work.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In Ireland, approach number 2 is the most commonly taken road.\u00a0 Ping\/SNMP cheapware is what most organizations waste their money and time<\/em> on.\u00a0 A server responding to ping does not make it healthy.\u00a0 A\u00a0green icon for a server that is monitored by\u00a0a few SNMP rules that took you an age to assemble does not make it healthy.<\/p>\n

    Instead what is needed is a monitoring solution that has indepth expertise in the network … all of it … from the hardware, up through to the applications, has ana additional\u00a0client perspective, and can assemble all of that into the (ITIL) service point of view.\u00a0 Such a solution may cost a little buit more but:<\/p>\n