Here at Ipswitch I have the pleasure of working closely with U.S. Government agencies to help them sort out their most pressing network monitoring challenges. Government IT pros know they need tools to monitor their networks but have a difficult time choosing one. And once they buy what seems right, it can end up costing even more time and money trying to get it to work right.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Government agencies can’t afford to spend money on features they’ll never use, or training they shouldn't need. And they certainly can’t afford to struggle on their own trying to collect data about their networks and applications. What's worse, oftentimes the employees charged with purchasing a solution are told to buy something to meet certain requirements based upon problems encountered. But that’s all they sometimes get, with no further guidance on what type of product can solve the problem.
Ever-present budget constraints means agencies have to be as cost-conscious as possible. Think LPTA (or "Lowest Priced Technically Acceptable") which dictates products acquired by government agencies must meet required technical capabilities at the best price. That can make finding the right software even harder.
Ipswitch has a long history and strong footprint in the U.S. Government. Our WhatsUp Gold network monitoring tools are used by the U.S. Department of Defense and other U.S. Federal agencies. They all use our products to connect securely and receive an unimpeded flow of data pertaining to their classified and standard networks. These networks don't all reside in government buildings in D.C.. Some are simply self-contained within an active warship or in a tent out in the field.
Many of the government agencies that come to us for help have been using a similar product but grew tired of deployment issues or even figuring out how the software works. This just illustrates how ease-of-use goes a long way in determining if a government agency can stay under budget and hit the ground running. Government agencies are very focused on digitizing and virtualizing services to improve operational efficiencies and reduce costs. They can’t lose money and time trying to learn how to manage and monitor IT resources.The employees charged with purchasing a solution are told to buy something to meet certain requirements based upon problems encountered. But that’s all they sometimes get, with no further guidance on what type of product can solve the problem
It’s enjoyable to see our government customers’ reactions when they have our software up and running within a day. And not only implementation within a day, but also generating analytics and information to help them make informed decisions. And they’re doing this before any type of formal product training. That's something no IT pro will complain about.
One of the biggest challenges for any IT team is figuring out their network assets and inventory, or managing configuration changes. Tune-in Tuesday December 8 for a webcast at 2pm US ET when Michael Roth, senior systems engineer at the University of North Georgia, will share his best practices for effectively managing network inventory and configuration changes.
