Groundworks 5.3 community edition is hosted on enterprise class application server/database, this came as a big relief after using Nagios which had some scalability issues. JBOSS and Mysql have given a good foundation to GroundWorks and provide some really nice Web 2.0 features like AJAX driven views/role driven dashboards etc… Furthermore GWS also provides some really cool reporting features. Note that the reporting functionality is for both realtime and historical information.

Hardware requirements for GWS are pretty straightforward i.e. 4 Gigs of RAM, 3 GHz CPU speed, 160 Gigs of harddrive, etc.. Net net – Nothing earthshaking.

What was really interesting is that GWS had a lot of plug ins incorporated, intuitive UI driven hostgroup/host setup, servicegroup/service setup, dependency control and service metric reporting features. This was a BIG plus and provided value of the shelf… For the existing Nagios users, GWS provides an seamless port over of existing functionality. Whats more is that installation took only 30 minutes!! Well do not confuse installation with ready solution — PLEASE. I am only referring to base solution.

If all of the aforementioned was not enough, the GWS solution provides a feature to discover  devices based on ping sweep and tcp layer discovery option as well; Auto discovery for free — Neat!!

So to summarize, GWS community edition turned out to be a very useful time investment due to following reasons:

1) Easy to install 20 minutes of initial setup

2) UI driven hostgroup/host/servicegroup/service/commands/dependencies

3) Historical and Realtime reporting features

4) Auto Discovery via ICMP protocol

5) AJAX driven role based views/dashboards

6) MySql archive

7) Checks for SNMP alarms [passive]

8 ) Active service checks [loads of them]

I would be interested to hear the feedback from others who have used enterprises edition on GWS BSM features provided in enterprise version of the solution.

So what are the various “Human” dimensions/perspectives of BSM

1. Skills: If you thought you can get BSM/Service Assurance implementations done by a bunch of system engineers with expertise on a bunch of tools; you are heading for a disaster. What you need is someone who can envision solution, understand the organization, communicate the ideas and implement them with agility. System engineers are an important part of the implementation, but they have biases towards what they know best which works out ok if what they know can scale to the needs of the organization.
2. Ability to work with end users is another very important aspect for the success of the BSM solution; a word of caution here – If you heard sales presentations saying BSM is only for VP’s, Directors to know the “global strategic view”; stay away!! BSM belongs as much to the VP’s as it belongs to the technician “Joe” sitting in the Operations Center trying to understand why his walk in the datacenter and him pulling the cable can cause a loss of millions of dollars.
3. P2P of value chain: No P2P is not peer to peer but people to people communication of “value” of BSM solution and understanding the importance of communication of service impacting information to all expected stakeholders.

So, next time you are working on BSM implementation, try this – WALK AROUND!!  Ensure BSM is a part of every individual goals and objectives, the value that the VP’s and Director’s are expecting out of the solution is communicated to as many folks as possible. Also, the value that the technician Joe is expecting is communicated back completing full cycle of “value” flow. That is what makes the business better!! Have you ever seen all of the aforementioned  happening in a BSM implementation? I can bet that the answer in more than 80% of the cases is “NO”; and we ask why 8 of 10 BSM efforts fail to meet the proposed expected value.

BSM will only be “BS” if WE(the community) miss out on the perspective which ensures the alignment of the most important asset/pillar for the success of a business i.e. “Humans”.