Groundwork Announces Enterprise Monitor Version 6.2

GroundWork Open Source Inc. has announced version 6.2 of its GroundWork Monitor Enterprise product, which now allows end users to run reports, provides better integration with third-party identity management systems to provide role-based infrastructure views and improves monitoring of Java applications. The product's ability to do deeper monitoring into network services ties into the trend of system administrators running IT productions and taking on a hybrid role between IT operations and software development.

Because many of the product's users implement it within an existing identity management system, such as Microsoft's Active Directory, Novell Identity Manager or Kerberos, Version 6.2 includes role-based restrictions that let network administers segment the monitored environment, allowing individuals to see only the section of network infrastructure that is relevant to them, says Simon Bennett, senior director of product management. In addition, the custom dashboards available in previous versions have been expanded so that users can be restricted to a particular set of services.

"Groundwork is delivering on the top three things I see others in this space working on: furthering virtualization management, emerging cloud monitoring and wider integration with other parts of the IT management stack, such as service desks," says Michael Cote, a software industry analyst with RedMonk, a Seattle-based consultancy.

"The monitoring and management folks are starting to get pressure, if only inquiries, about managing cloud and cloud-like deployment scenarios." But because the usual systems for doing management are not as reliable,if they're present at all, monitoring vendors are having to come up with new tools rather than relying on the old standards. This is particularly true with virtualization, which Cote believes to be the most important technology being used today in data centers.

Version 6.2 is available now starting at $49 per year. Most of its customers use it to monitor VMware, though the company can also ability monitor Citrix XenServer. GroundWork has not seen enough demand for Microsoft's Hyper-V to support that. It monitors Microsoft Windows, Unix and Linux servers and the applications that run on them, as well as network devices such as switches and hubs. It includes best practices monitoring profiles for Red Hat's JBoss, Apache Software Foundation's Tomcat, and IBM's WebSphere, but not yet BEA System's WebLogic, though support is planned.