Nimsoft Launches Unified Monitoring Alliance

Nimsoft has launched a Unified Monitoring Alliance that includes Autotask, ConnectWise, FusionStorm, Ingram Micro, Rackspace Hosting and roughly 30 other service providers and independent software vendors. What does all this mean? Here’s my take on Nimsoft’s efforts.

For more than a year, readers have been telling MSPmentor that they need a single dashboard for monitoring on-premise systems and a growing number of cloud applications.

Already, roughly 20 percent of MSPmentor readers are monitoring their customers’ cloud applications, according to a May 2009 MSPmentor reader poll. But many MSPs use a hodgepodge of tools to monitor a range of customer systems.

Eager to solve those challenges, Nimsoft in October 2009 launched a Unified Monitoring platform that apparently allows MSPs and IT managers to monitor IT infrastructure from the data center to the cloud.

Helping Hands

Still, building a single dashboard that can monitor scores of third-party applications requires third-party help. That’s where the Unified Monitoring Alliance enters the picture.

According to a Nimsoft press release, the alliance will include three types of partners:

• Service Provider Partners — Members of this group deliver managed, hosted, cloud-based, and other related services that are monitored using the Nimsoft Monitoring Solution (NMS), according to Nimsoft. Charter members include Alvaka, Atrion, BSG, CDW HMS, Data Electronics, ENKI, FusionStorm, Ingram Micro Inc, Seismic Division, IT Authorities, Longview, MicroMenders, PHNS, NetEnrich, Rackspace Hosting, and Thomas Duryea.
• Solution Partners — These ISVs and SaaS providers extend the Nimsoft solution by providing complementary IT service management solutions and capabilities such as net-flow traffic capture, service desk, and IT infrastructure library configuration management databases, Nimsoft asserts. Charter members include Acentix, Attention Soft, Autotask, BigFix, ConnectWise, geoXMF, Plixer, Sanfir, Service-Now, Sensatronics, Shavlik, Stratavia, VaultLogix, and Wendia.
• Technology Development Partners — These partners are building data collection probes to extend the myriad of types of objects NMS monitors, from non-standard databases to ERP applications to geo-location-based devices, and more, Nimsoft asserts. Utilizing the Nimsoft Unified Monitoring solutions and APIs, these partners create probes that are then resold to Nimsoft customers. Charter members include InTeliNet and Agentil.

The Bigger Picture

The Unified Monitoring Alliance sure sounds promising. But remember: Multiple software companies in the MSP industry want to be the de facto dashboard for monitoring or maintaining all systems.

Two quick examples:

• Level Platforms in May 2009 announced monitoring and management of emerging Microsoft cloud and SaaS applications — including the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).
• Rivals ConnectWise and Autotask, among other MSP software providers, each have been promoting APIs (application programming interfaces) that allow RMM, backup and other tools to integrate with the respective PSA platforms.

Still, each dashboard effort varies from the next. In Nimsoft’s case, the company clearly wants to appeal to both corporate IT managers and service providers. Plenty of vendors are lining up to voice support for the Unified Monitoring Alliance. But it will take months to truly measure the alliance’s potential impact.

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