[c-nsp] ISP Network Monitoring/Helpdesk/Workflow Automation

Paul Stewart paul at paulstewart.org
Sat Jul 7 22:34:08 EDT 2007


Hi folks...

Looking for suggestions for "management software".... Both as individual
suggestions but also if there exists a product that does it all and
integrates....

We have about 200 routers/switches (all Cisco) of which 100 are inhouse and
the rest are at customer sites, 60-80 servers running Linux/Windows, and
then about another 120 devices such as DSLAM's, UPS's, dial-up shelves
etc.....  And I'm looking for a way to monitor them (with thresholds,
alarms, escalations, etc)

On the "frontend" of the operation, we have about 45 people answering phones
and talking to customers, not including the technical and field staff
supporting them behind the scenes.  I want the information gathered from the
monitoring system to become present in the "customer support" system so that
when a customer calls in, if their SLA was effected by an outage or if we
had a major outage that was effecting them then the information is part of
their customer history.

Finally, I'm looking for some automation that when customer XYZ sends an
email or opens a ticket through telephone, then the "system" will begin
routing their information to the correct group automatically based on their
"profile"....

I've looked at dozens of packages and still am not sure which way to go.
Budget is secondary compared to finding the right product....  I have also
talked with several companies such as HP, BMC, AdventNet and Cittio....

Today, we use JFFNMS (open source network monitoring) and Cerberus for
helpdesk applications.... There is no automation, workflow routing, or
customer histories in this setup.....

Thoughts or experiences to share?  What is everyone using if you're a
service provider today??

Thanks in advance,

Paul Stewart




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