web interface

RapidInsight is typically used to provide web based access to events and service status information from management tools such as EMC Smarts and IBM Netcool. However RapidInsight really shines when data from multiple sources gets integrated to provide a consistent, unified, easy to use web interface for all relevant information without the hassle of single signon systems, clients conflicts and having to train users to use different user interfaces of each tool.

In IT operations management, access to data from configuration/change management, and ticketing systems along with events from monitoring systems is often needed. RapidInsight is a great fit to bring all the relevant information to the interested users.

To demonstrate this concept I've added integration with a configuration/change management system (CMS) in our live demo. In this example, users will be able to see the configuration change history of the devices by executing a tool from the right click menu in context. The configuration history data (we've created some mock data) is stored in a relational database.  read more »

We've been working RapidInsight and RapidInformer for quite some time now. Yet, it would have been inconceivable to bring a product into market in such a short time if it wasn't for number of high quality components available in the public domain.

I wanted to talk about some of these components/products that we have leveraged in developing RapidInsight and the rational for choosing/using these components.

One of the key design goals we've had for RapidInsight and RapidInformer has been developing a product that is extremely easy to implement. We wanted to be able to have anyone bring the solution up and running within 15 minutes, regardless of the server platform.  read more »

Netcool is one of the most popular (if not the most) manager of managers in the market, and it has been for quite some time. I still remember the first time I started using it 8 years ago. I was hooked at once. I could not believe how much better than Unicenter and TEC it was.

Through the years, number of different products were released to provide web based access to Netcool as it was a common requirement in the marketplace, but they did not live up to the quality of the core Netcool (Omnibus) product. Some customers (and consultants) became Webtop gurus, making the best of it, others rolled out their own solutions, almost everyone hoping a better version would come along “soon”.  read more »

When learning about new products, I often find myself trying to understand what problem the product is trying to solve and often without much success. It is crucial for vendors to express this clearly, yet it's not so easy. We sometimes get lost talking the jargon, the features, etc. and forget about the fundamental question. What is this product good for?

Hence, I remind myself not too loose track of where we (iFountain) have started. RapidInsight is a direct result of number of problems we have run into repeatedly in the field. It's our attempt to have a repeatable solution to common problems that are typically solved as ad-hoc custom projects or by forcing product to perform “unnatural acts”.

So in this series of posts. I'll discuss the problems we have encountered in the field. The problems we are trying to solve with RapidInsight.

Problem: The client is broken  read more »

iFountain is a systems integration/software company. We have been focusing on developing and implementing Smarts based management solutions, and have developed number of tools to address the most common requirements seen in field. Some of the more commonly used tools have gone through the development factory and being released into the wild as products.RapidConnector, our integration/automation solution, was released over a year ago. RapidConnector is all about creating adapters that are easy to implement and easy to maintain. RapidConnector adapter are typically used to integrate disparate management systems, in-house databases, etc. enabling alignment of technology with the processes. Further information on RapidConnector can be found in our website.  read more »