Business service management software vendor Zyrion has introduced its
Traverse solution to the reseller channel, giving solution providers a new way
to offer customers real-time visibility into and analysis of the performance of
their IT services.
Though network management itself isn’t new, disruptive technologies such as
distributed computing, unified communications and virtualization and the
growing cloud computing push on the horizon have resulted in increased
complexity in corporate networks, says Vikas Aggarwal, president and founder of
Zyrion.
“With so many applications and so much traffic to monitor and manage,
traditional network monitoring systems just can’t keep up,” says Aggarwal. One
of the main challenges in trying to apply legacy network monitoring software to
next-generation networks is that traditional solutions focus on the wrong area,
he says.
"We talk a lot about BSM, but what that really means is a focus on the
services provided by applications in a data center,” he says. “If a server goes
down, it doesn’t impact the user much because data centers include load
balancers. But if your database goes down, that really impacts the services and
information that’s available to the user.”
And if users aren’t able to receive services—or even if the quality of service
is lowered—it can negatively impact a company’s business. Traverse gives
solution providers the ability to monitor and manage services delivery and
quality of service, which enables their customers to better serve end users.
“Our correlated services-related view lets solution providers see how
customers’ services—like VOIP, Web applications, etc.—are working,” Aggarwal
says. “Traverse tells you when specific devices and infrastructure components
are down, but also tells which business processes are impacted and how that
affects the end customer.”
The Traverse solution is simple to install, and can be deployed in just a few
hours and managed by a small number of staff, Aggarwal says. This gives
solution provides higher margins and increased efficiency and utilization
rates, he says.
Aggarwal says Traverse is compatible with about 90 percent of data center
infrastructure vendors’ products, which means the solution is a fit for nearly
any customer. He says that while big vendors like Hewlett-Packard, IBM
and Computer Associates and smaller firms like SolarWinds offer competing
solutions, none are targeted toward the midmarket and smaller enterprises.
“The market we’re going after is in between that of high-cost, complex
enterprise solutions from HP, IBM and CA and
low-cost tools for SMBs from SolarWinds or WhatsUp,” Aggarwal says.
Pricing starts at about $100,000, aimed squarely at midmarket customers, he
says. In addition, the solution is a good fit for verticals such as education
and/or health care, in which organizations may have the size and scale of a
large enterprise, but must work within much smaller budgets.
Currently, Zyrion has 10 to 15 regionally distributed channel partners and is
recruiting from the ranks of "traditional" networking and data center
VARs, including many Cisco partners with network, storage and server expertise.
Aggarwal says Zyrion is being selective about which partners it’ll work with in
a proactive attempt to avoid potential channel conflict.
“The channel is absolutely essential in this market segment,” he says. “We have
to make sure each channel partner gets the attention and support they deserve.”