Automated IT

I twitted about going to the HP Software users group the other day, hoping it would be of value. I wasn’t disappointed.

One idea I've been throwing about in my head for ages; is a free (to me because i would write it) IT monitoring system. Similar to Nagios, but running on Windows (because I love .NET). However it would have a powerful workflow engine behind it so when an internet connection goes down, it wouldn't just send me a TXT, but log a call with the ISP, add it to the internal Case management system and close the case when “Telstra” do their magic.. Or similarly automatically build a new VM when a server becomes overloaded, shut them down when they are no longer required.

It would appear that amongst HP’s portfolio of software, they have this stuff already. They integrate into everything, detect a new Windows server on the network, install/configure monitoring agents automatically. When the server throws a low disk alert, automatically connect to the SAN and allocate more disk space and then alert service desk, there was a disk space issue, but I've dealt with it…

Only problem, we’re not using it.. and its not Free.. (also, i didn't write it.. :( )