FireScope BSM

At its core, FireScope BSM (Business Service Management) is a centralized IT management and monitoring platform, providing the ability to monitor the aggregated health and performance metrics of devices, servers, and applications within the network and view the results in a Web interface. The product is offered in both Business (BSM:BE) and Enterprise (BSM:EE) Editions; the Business Edition is delivered as a downloadable Virtual Appliance (for VMware or Citrix XenServer), while the Enterprise Edition ships as a preloaded hardware appliance.

FireScope BSM feature a number of supported data collection schemes for the gathering of information from devices and applications for further analysis. Ping checks to determine a device's availability status, SNMP (v1-3) and SMTP data receipts, WMI/Perfmon, Syslog (including the ability to configure the box as a relay agent for 3rd party syslog aggregators, or a receiver of pre-processed aggregated feeds from other devices), SMI-S, a Web Monitoring tool (simulates the actual activities of a Web user against a Web application), and database connection and analysis are all listed as supported by the platform. Additionally, "rich agents" can be deployed directly to target systems, with support for "...all modern versions of Windows, UNIX, Linux, BSD, Solaris and AIX." Such agents can provide platform- or application-specific information (such as page file utilization), and can be extended to collect proprietary data from 3rd party custom applications. An SDK is provided enabling partners and developers to create their own collection, management, and portal tools.

To work with the information, users access a Web-based portal interface exposed by the appliances. Interface features include role-based customization and security controls that allow information displays to be limited to only those individuals with designated access rights. A/D and LDAP integration is supported.

Other features include Single-Sign-On capabilities (for applications integrated into the display portal); tiered-notification; automatic asset discovery; support for automated backups/updates; and support for Google Gadgets and Google Maps integration.

In addition to this core feature set, the Enterprise Edition also includes extended reporting capabilities (AJAX-based real-time reporting, an interactive report designer, and an analytics package); collaboration tools; SAN support for data storage; failover support; and support for data aggregation from multiple sites.

New in the latest FireScope BSM release is enhanced performance via a redesigned core engine based on Enterprise Service Bus architecture (the vendor states that the new engine is capable of processing data better than 3x faster than the previous version), an inline reporting engine, and the ability to share dashboard pages with other team members.

FireScope BSM is available now, with pricing starting at $2,450 (BSM:BE with support for 50 elements). A free 28-day trial is also available.

Visit the FireScope Web site for further information.