If, like me, you believe we’re living in a hybrid IT world when it comes to workload placement, then it would make sense to also consider a hybrid approach when deploying IT infrastructure monitoring solutions. What I mean by this is deciding where to physically run a monitoring solution, be that on-premises or in the public cloud.
I work for a value-added reseller, predominantly involved with deploying infrastructure for virtualization, end-user computing, disaster recovery, and
Office 365 solutions. During my time I’ve run a support team offering managed services for a range of different-sized customers from SMB to SME, and managing several different monitoring solutions. They range from SaaS products to bolster our managed service offering to customers’ locally installed monitoring applications. Each has its place and there are reasons for choosing one platform over another.
Licensing Models
Or what I really mean, how much does this thing cost?
Typically for an on-premises solution, there will be a one-off upfront cost and then a yearly maintenance plan. This is called perpetual licensing. The advantage here is that you own the product with the initial purchase, and then maintaining the product support and subscription entitles you to future upgrades and support. Great for a CapEx investment.
SaaS offerings tend to be a monthly cost. If you stop paying, you no longer have access to the solution. This is called subscription licensing. Subscription licensing is more flexible in that you can scale up or scale down the licenses required on a month-by-month basis. I will cover more on this in a future blog post.
Data Gravity
This is physically where the bulk of your application data resides, be that on-premises or in the public cloud. Some applications need to be close to their data so they can run quickly and effectively, and a monitoring solution should take this into consideration. It could be bad to have a SaaS-based monitoring solution if you have time-sensitive data running on-premises that needs near-instantaneous alerts. Consider time sensitivity and criticality when deciding what a monitoring solution should deliver for you. If being alerted about something up to 15 minutes after an event has occurred is acceptable, then a SaaS solution for on-premises workloads could be a good fit.
Infrastructure to Run a Monitoring Solution
Some on-premises monitoring solutions can be resource-intensive, which can prove problematic if the existing environment is not currently equipped to run it. This could lead to further CapEx expenditure for new hardware just to run the monitoring solution, which in turn is something else that will need to be monitored. SaaS, in this instance, could be a good fit.
Also, consider this: do you want to own and maintain another platform, or do you want a SaaS provider to worry about it? If we compare email solutions like Exchange and Exchange Online, Exchange is in many instances faster for user access and you have total control over how to run the solution. Exchange Online, however, is usually good enough and removes the hassle of managing an Exchange server. Ask yourself: do you need good enough or do you need some nerd knobs to turn?
Conclusion
A lot of this article may seem obvious, but the key to choosing a monitoring solution is to start out with a set of criteria that fits your needs and then evaluate the marketplace. Personally, I’ve started with lists with X, Y, and Z requirements with a weighting on each item. Whichever product scored the highest ended up being the best choice.
To give you an idea of those requirements, I typically start out with things like:
- Is the solution multi-tenanted?
- How much does it cost?
- How is it licensed?
- What else can it integrate with (like a SIEM solution, etc.)?
A good end product is always the result of meticulous preparation and planning.
