GFI launches GFI Network Server Monitor

Citation

Blake, M. (2004), "GFI launches GFI Network Server Monitor", The Electronic Library, Vol. 22 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/el.2004.26322bab.008

GFI launches GFI Network Server Monitor

GFI has introduced GFI Network Server Monitor, a tool that automatically monitors the network and servers for failures, and allows administrators to identify and fix issues before users report them. Alerts can be sent by email, pager or SMS. Actions, such as rebooting a machine, restarting a service or running a script, can be done automatically. GFI Network Server Monitor is easy to set up and use, and is competitively priced.

Although there are several network monitoring tools on the market, GFI Network Server Monitor stands out because of its ease of use; its intuitive rules interface makes monitoring a network child’s play. With GFI Network Server Monitor, administrators can monitor their network within an hour of installing it. By comparison, conventional network monitoring programs are complex to install and have a steep learning curve.

A further difference in other network monitoring/management products is that they are traditionally rather expensive. For example, Microsoft Operations Manager costs US$395 per monitored processor. By contrast, GFI Network Server Monitor costs US$695 for unlimited monitoring of all workstations and servers (independent of the number of processors) in a network; a five-server monitoring licence costs US$;375.

When it detects a failure, GFI Network Server Monitor can send alerts via SMS, pager, e-mail or a network message. After an unexpected condition has occurred, GFI Network Server Monitor can automatically correct the problem by restarting a service (or multiple services) upon failure; rebooting a server; or launching an executable, batch job or VBScript.