June 12th, 2007
Is Zenoss ambition justified?
Zenoss has big ambitions for Zenoss Core 2.0, its open source management product.
The freely-available new version now available in a hardware version as well, will lower the cost of management by over 80% compared to high-end tools from ‘The Big Four’ of HP, IBM, CA and, BMC.
Sure, it costs 80% less, but how much of the job does it do? If you’re as far from the Fortunate 500 as I am, probably all of it.
Personally I think “productizing” Zenoss Core into hardware is the big news here. Hardware is always sold, even when the software inside is open source, which will help Zenoss pay the rent.
But a productized management system also makes sense from the user perspective. It brings sophisticated management into smaller installations, and such tools need to be available to even small businesses today.
I wonder when you’ll see Zenoss Core at Fry’s?
I’m serious. How many businesses do you know of today with just one computer? I’ve got five, and a network, just serving my family. So driving this market closer to my level is a very good thing.
The new Zenoss Core also simplifies life with ZenPacks, performance and modeling templates for device types or groups. The idea is that hardware makers will create ZenPacks for their devices, simplifying their management with Zenoss Core. So might individual users.
Whether this release makes the “big four” wake up screaming at night is not the issue. If it keeps lawyers, doctors, and parents from losing hair in their network management duties, that will be more than good enough.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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