BSM Tools

Posted by Bruce Boardman on August 26, 2005

Tags: Bruce Boardman,  CMDB,  ITIL,  NSM,  NWC Inc.,  business service management,  comparative review,  BSM,  Business Intelligence ,  Enterprise Applications,  Other

Channel: Other

BSM Vendors At A Glance Click to Enlarge

These are not cure-alls, however. Although some of the data collected by application-mapping products can further server-performance-monitoring objectives, for example, you'll do better with a dedicated performance-management suite, like those from OpTier or ProactiveNet. And, as noted, we didn't require entries to map network dependencies; some switch and load-balancer information will bubble up when using the tools tested, but if you need Layer 2 and Layer 3 maps of switch and router connectivity, look to products like Hewlett-Packard's HP OpenView Network Node Manager and Computer Associates' Aprisma.

We tested application mapping by using the business processes established in our NWC Inc. business applications lab in Green Bay, Wis. The application-mapping servers--and the tester--lived in our Syracuse University Real-World Labs®; we connected the two environments over a SonicWall VPN. (For more information, see "How We Tested BSM Tools".)

Our widget-manufacturing operation consists of three main applications: an e-commerce site, an inventory site and a customer-order-tracking site. We mapped all three applications. Inventory and e-commerce share a single Oracle9i database, while the Microsoft SQL customer-tracking database is synchronized with the Oracle database. Each application has Web server, application server and database tiers, though the app and Web servers live on the same machine.