FRAMINGHAM (02/07/2000) - A new licensing structure from software maker Ganymede Software Inc. will make it easier and cheaper for systems managers to try application monitoring.
The Morrisville, N.C.-based vendor today announced a "universal license" scheme for its Pegasus 2.2 monitoring software, which will be available by April 1.
Pegasus Network Monitor and Pegasus Application Monitor are being restructured as a three-part tool: a console with network and application-monitoring components. Each component used to cost $25,000. A Pegasus 2.2 server license starts at $25,000 and includes both components.
While Version 2.2 simplifies monitoring tasks and offers features such as automatic updates for client-side agents, the insight into performance management is more significant, said Dennis Drogseth, an analyst at Enterprise Management Associates in Boulder, Colo.
"A year ago it would have seemed byzantine to have so many options," he said.
"But performance management is much more complex and requires more dimensions" of data correlation and interpretation than network performance management alone.
SAS Institute Inc. in Cary, N.C., runs only the Network Monitor, but the new licensing could change that, said Stephen Sanger, an SAS system performance analyst.
"When we did the evaluation, we couldn't come up with justification to buy the application monitor," Sanger said. "Application data is harder to process, and it's harder to decide what to do with it."
A single Pegasus 2.2 server license might have rights to implement 1,000 agents -- 900 network and 100 application. But as demand for application monitoring increases, managers could change the ratio. That would let us "make a transition into doing application monitoring at our own pace," Sanger said.
Currently, Application Monitor's Performance Endpoint software agents sit on client machines and passively watch real traffic. Network Monitor's Application Scripts actively generate synthetic traffic and run regular tests.
The new Performance Endpoints can operate in application- or network-monitoring mode, or both simultaneously.
"That would be good for troubleshooting," Sanger said. "We could have the Endpoints set to do active monitoring, but if we got user complaints about an application, we could turn on the passive monitoring to do a detailed [reading], then turn it off."
Endpoints can automatically load upgrades, which Sanger said would simplify his job.
Pegasus runs on Windows NT. It monitors IBM's OS/2 and MVS as well as Windows, NetWare and Unix.