Understanding remote hardware monitoring
Given the ongoing global financial situation, and the fact that “cost saving” and “restructuring” have been phrases used around many boardroom tables, it should come as little surprise that remote hardware monitoring is on the increase.
Unlike traditional “in-house” IT management solutions, a remote system for monitoring the performance and maintenance carries out these tasks via the internet. These remote hardware monitoring systems work in much the same way as a managed approach might work with software monitoring, but they actually look after the physical hardware. This is perhaps most useful within small- and medium-sized organizations.
With these monitoring tasks completed remotely, there is an immediate cost saving in that the salary and other costs associated with that position are no longer present. However, in the case of a small business that might not necessarily have a dedicated IT support worker, this job is invariably hoisted onto an existing member of staff, who probably had enough to do in the first place. What inevitably happens in this situation is that the job is neglected, and equipment begins to suffer, ultimately breaking down way ahead of time.
To a business trying to save money on IT support, a system that results in hardware needing to be replaced more often does not make sense. With managed hardware monitoring systems, all alerts are noted and responded to by trained and dedicated staff in a timely manner, giving the said hardware a fighting chance to last as long as would be expected.
These systems work by providing a constant data stream of system performance to the remote server. Information such as system temperature, voltage, power level and even the performance of the cooling fans is monitored and dealt with remotely, giving piece of mind to the business that hardware is in the best possible hands.
Remote Monitoring for Legacy AS/400 iSeries Systems
Great Lakes Computer offers NEMS/400 monoitoring, which constantly monitors your hardware and reports any problems so we can be there before they happen. NEMS/400 was created to allow GLC to offer the same “comfort factor” that IBM is able to leverage as a major player in the AS/400-iSeries maintenance market place. This service provides complete system monitoring, automatic alerts and customer notification for all of your AS/400 and iSeries products.
