Dear Group, Long post, maybe off-topic, you may wish to skip.
Our government department has been using assorted tools for monitoring. There is a push to standardize on one tool to do this monitoring. Currently we have WhatsUp Gold and Intermapper, each used by different groups for different reasons. Up until the New Year, this consolidation was leaning heavily toward Intermapper and money was actually spent. However, the "other side" is ramping up and they are suggesting WhatsUp Professional 2006 should be the tool. A classic showdown. My boss asked me to get WhatsUp and look at it and give an opinion. Of course I am biased and even though I think I can do an honest comparison there will always be a point where I just like the way Intermapper does something better than WhatsUp. WhatsUp Professional 2006 has a few of the things we have been asking for, an important one being one device on several maps but only polled once and the info shared. Also, remote users can make changes to the map without a separate piece of software - it's built in. But I haven't been able to move objects around, just add/delete/modify them. Technically, I think the two products are just about the same but the presentation is so different. I truly hate the WhatsUp user interface - again, probably a more personal opinion than professional but I find that the Intermapper GUI is easier to understand and to get important info fast - often with just one click. What I need from the readers of this group, if possible - is any comparisons made between the two products they did or know of that actually gets into some of the technical pros/cons of each product. Both websites have examples of happy customers where their product identifies a problem before the phone rings - but neither of them say exactly what the problem was or just what it showed/did to save the day, just generalities. Compounding my problem is that I have several levels of users and different groups that will conceivably use the "tool". However - no one has put forward a list of requirements of what their group needs in a monitoring tool. My group has the most responsibility in monitoring practically anything on the network. Other groups are just concerned in routers or they only need a general up/down indication. The major group proposing WhatsUp has a higher political presence than us so I have to put forward a real daunting presentation. We have been using Intermapper first on the Mac and then on W2K3 for around 5 +/- years. I want to stay there but I'm not optimistic. Any advice anyone can provide would help. Thanks Kevin ____________________________________________________________________ List archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/intermapper-talk%40list.dartware.com/ To unsubscribe: send email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
