SolarWinds Inc., a network application developer based in Austin, Texas, is offering a free centralized IT alert management console that automates alert calls send to specific IT teams and on-call personnel and even escalates that status of the call according to administrator defined rules, should the intended receiver fail to answer the call.
Alert Central is a standalone virtual appliance that can be downloaded for free and integrated with SolarWinds products or systems from other manufacturers, according to Don Thomas Jacobs, engineer and technology evangelist for the company.
“Alert Central can send alerts in a matter of seconds via email or through any messaging system that a company is already using without the need for extensive custom configuration” he said.
He said the product is ideal for relaying network management issues, security alerts, network configuration issues, help desk issues and more.
Among the main advantages of Alert Central, Jacobs said, is doesn’t need a virtual private network (VPN) connection, it can be easily used by non-technical personnel and it can easily scale serve hundreds of users.
“It’s different from a helpdesk or ticket tracking system in that Alert Central’s focus in around on call management and escalation,” said Nicole Paul, product manager for SolarWinds. “When you need to wake someone up to deal with an issue, when you need to be sure that something is handled promptly, when something affecting the business and your people and the issue is time sensitive, those situations are good candidates for Alert Central.”
Core features of Alert Central include:
-Centralization and escalation tools for handling alerts
-Group-centric management
-Two-way integration with
Orion alerting
-Supports almost any third-party and non-Orion source via email
-Call acknowledgement and alerting via email and Web interface
-Routing rules that help create policies based on properties of the alerts
-Weekly summary reports of vital stats
-Web user interface that works on browsers and mobile devices
-Plain text, rich text and SMS text email templates