Author: JT Smith
Companies participating in the Early Adopters Program will receive a wide range of professional on-site consulting services at no cost from OpenNMS. Those services include initial customization and deployment of the 0.6 release, ongoing 24×7 service and support, and the opportunity to participate at the forefront of a new technology deployment that many observers believe will transform enterprise management. The Early Adopters Program marks the first step by OpenNMS toward becoming an industry-leading provider of network management services to enterprises of all sizes that deploy the next-generation software being developed by OpenNMS.org.
Companies in the Early Adopter Program will receive a customized solution built by OpenNMS, free support, and the opportunity to identify enhancements and provide feedback directly to the OpenNMS developer team. Two of the first companies to enlist in the Early Adopters Program are MetStream Communications, a Portland-based telecommunications company, and etrials, a North Carolina company that provides software solutions and services to the pharmaceutical industry.
“Any network professional is all too familiar with the ongoing struggle to meet the severe demands placed on them by today’s accelerating technology and network complexity,” said Russell Miller, Systems Engineer for MetStream. “What we see in OpenNMS is the ability to leverage the advantages of open source development to meet these challenges for businesses whose lifeblood flows through, and depends on, a healthy network.”
“After getting a sneak preview of the OpenNMS software, we were excited at the kinds of capabilities this product brings to the end-user,” said Graham Mainwaring, Director of Information Technologies at etrials. “We look forward to deployment of the 0.6 release and working with the OpenNMS team as they continue to refine a truly breakout technology.”
Among its many innovations, the 0.6 release introduces a dynamic new Automated Performance Monitoring (APM) feature to network managers that is unique to the OpenNMS software among today?s offerings. The APM capability of 0.6, combined with enhanced performance data collection, a re-written core process manager, a new web-based GUI interface for “at-a-glance” reporting and other improvements move the OpenNMS software further toward a 1.0 release in 2001. Utilizing the open source development model, OpenNMS is dedicated to producing a revolutionary new product that reduces the total cost of ownership for enterprise management, significantly expands the functionality of today?s aging network management software, and continually delivers bleeding-edge technological enhancements to network and system management professionals in enterprises of all sizes.
The 0.6 release provides functionality designed for small and mid-size networks of up to 500 nodes. Building on the first interim 0.4.0 OpenNMS release in December 2000, the 0.6 release provides the following functionalities and features:
*Automated Performance Monitoring
*Paging and e-mail notification of critical events
*At-a-glance, web-based reporting
*Cross-platform graphical user interface
*Event Management
*TCP/IP-based Discovery and Monitoring
*Service Level Monitoring
*Business Views
*Graphical Rule Builder
*Service Discovery and Polling
*Performance polling via SNMP
*Service pollers with a modular plug-in architecture
*”Out of the box” support for service pollers that monitor web, e-mail, FTP, SSH, DNS, and Database servers
*Graphical drag and drop configuration interface
“No matter how dynamic and exciting a new technology promises to be, its ultimate success in the real world will be determined by one factor: the end user,” said Shane O?Donnell, Project Leader of OpenNMS.org. “The Early Adopter Program will allow future end users to tell us today what they like, what they don?t like, and what they wish for in their ideal environment. It is this continuous feedback that we receive from early adopters — and through the open source development model itself — that will ensure that OpenNMS becomes the software of choice in enterprise management.”
Organizations wishing to participate in the Early Adopters Program should visit the web at http://www.opennms.org/sections/get_involved/eap/. Development is underway on a 0.8 OpenNMS release leading to a full-featured 1.0 release in mid- to late 2001.
About OpenNMS.org
OpenNMS.org is an open source software consortium that is developing next-generation software for network and system management using cutting-edge technologies, including distributed computing, Java, XML, XSL, web based presentation of historical trends, scalability, and multi-threaded architecture. OpenNMS.org is committed to developing software for enterprise management that brings the four cornerstones of the open source value proposition to businesses and organizations of all sizes: 1) lower cost of deployment, 2) quicker speed of technical adaptation, 3) the ongoing use of cutting edge technologies, and 4) the opportunity for end user customization. The OpenNMS.org project is based in Cary, North Carolina and includes over 3,000 software developers, architects, marketers and consultants. www.opennms.org.
About OpenNMS
OpenNMS is the corporate entity that the founders of the OpenNMS.org consortium created to fund the software development project. Comprised of leading network and system management professionals and open source advocates, the OpenNMS management team leads a company that will provide comprehensive commercial services and support for enterprises that deploy the next-generation software produced by the OpenNMS.org open source project. OpenNMS became a subsidiary of Atipa Corporation when it was acquired in 2000 and will launch a comprehensive suite of service and support offerings when OpenNMS.org issues its 1.0 release to the public for free download in 2001.
About etrials
etrials serves the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries by helping companies improve and accelerate the complex and regulatory-driven processes associated with collecting data for clinical trials. Using innovative technologies and proven business processes, etrials offers an efficient, online data-capture system and a proven methodology for collecting patient-experience information and quality-of-life data. etrials also provides experienced clinical project management services to guide companies through the critical processes involved in migrating from paper-based to Web-enabled data collection. For more information on the company, please visit etrials on the web at www.etrials.com.
About MetStream Communications, Inc.
MetStream Communications, Inc., based in Portland, Oregon, is a next-generation Broadband Access Provider of Digital Television, Video-on-Demand, Internet Access, Hosted IP Applications and Telephony Services primarily targeting the apartment and condominium communities throughout the United States. The company is headquartered in Portland, but planning its rapid expansion throughout the United States. For more information, please visit www.metstream.com.
About Atipa Corporation
Atipa Corporation is a leading supplier of pre-configured Open Source and Linux workstations, servers and clusters for information management today. In early 2000 Atipa received over $30 million in equity capital from an investment group led by affiliates of Soros Private Equity Partners LLC, TA Associates, and WR Hambrecht + Co. Atipa is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri and can be found on the Web at www.atipa.com.
Submitted by Darrek Porter, Atipa Corporation
Contact: Darrek Porter, Atipa Corp.
816-595-3000, x1205
dporter@atipa.com
