Daily Network Monitor

Imagine you had the power to leave your job as a network administrator for a day or so with pay of course. Next, imagine you’re granted an employee pass to the product planning session, marketing rah-rah party or the annual sales meeting for one of the large enterprise systems management companies like HP or IBM. What would you say once you arrived?

You would likely acknowledge that HP and IBM reflect much of the excellence the tech industry is known for. You would also be impressed with the corporate facilities and free drinks and snacks in the employee lounge but you would also ask, “Which one of you folks is in charge of gathering requirements from administrators like me before you go off and build your Openview and Tivoli lines?” After a moment or two of silence – you’d likely be inundated with a barrage of commentary around how effective customer advisory councils and on-line forums can be. Hmmm…just as you thought!

The point here is not to bad-mouth HP, IBM or any other enterprise systems vendor but enough is enough and on behalf of all overworked, overstressed and underpaid network administrators, you are making your voice heard.

You sit back in a clean new Herman Miller chair and yell Stop! You quickly point out to the lead spokesperson with the laser pointer that complexity does not equate to effectiveness and demands for simplicity does not equate to lack of ability. Network admins are busy professionals. More then ever before, an admins ability to keep the network up, running and supportive of the business objectives set forth are non-negotiable.

Administrators have neither the time nor the resources to take a week or two long training course in “how to use” one of these enterprise systems and are instead choosing solutions like WhatsUp Gold because it provides everything the most discriminating network admin needs to do his/her job without the stressful complexity of the user guide for larger systems. Last, you realize you do have the power…and that power is choice.