Broadcom Unified Infrastructure Manager, formerly from CA Technologies, is a unified tool for systems monitoring and analytics. It offers multiple deployment options for IT teams and MSPs .
Well Suited: - Multiple units (you may split Nimsoft per Groups, companies, etc.) - When your Business Teams NEED Dashboards (they'll love it after they learn how to use, for example, if they discover that the may even run SQL queries together with monitor the webpage of the application, and display business data) Less appropriate: - If you are beginning to monitor your environment (because you need to know your environment at least a little bit to check if the entire set of monitoring Nimsoft plugins will really help you or you will only use it to ping your application) - If you don't have at least one (i do recommend 2 or 3 after some short time) people dedicated to deploy and fine-tune the monitoring. The tool is really good, but if you don't have anyone working on it, you will notice that you're spending money in an elephant to kill an ant or worst, that you passed the entire year, and still have the same problems of the last year, cause no one put the hands enough time in the tool. I saw this happening during the first year when I was the only one working with the tool and still supporting the entire team.
For either DB2 or zLinux, Tivoli is hands-down the best solution. For Oracle and other operating systems, there are more advanced solutions available. Some of these features are considered "game-changing" by our Sys Admins. Of the three solutions I've dealt with, Tivoli ranks right in the middle with cost, features, and complexity. A nice solution (and the best for the options I listed above), but not cutting-edge.
I'd like to see improvements in inventory management. Currently node management isn't as efficient as I'd like.
I also see a big opportunity to offer greater customization in the Detail Tab. I'd like the ability to pick and chose which metrics are displayed by default in the Detail Tab snapshot.
Tivoli is not manageable from the GUI console and I believe it needs a dedicated resource to manage the software.
Tivoli (TSM) configuration is complex, granular, and scalable with customizable configuration features, but it requires a good administrator that has a strong knowledge of the product.
It needs additional agents or plugins for administration; for example, I have to use an MMC plug-in on the servers.
All tools have their own gaps , some seem to do more than others, some just work better. With UIM we have found a sweet spot with features, price point, pros, cons, etc
Tivoli sits right in the middle of these two products, all things considered. Each has its own strengths (Cohesity has bells and whistles, CommVault works well with Microsoft). Tivoli is a nice blend and rock-solid once implemented.
Business Units love It - Good for them, but worse for the IT Team until we share the responsibility of the dashboards.
If no one put their hands on it, it will take some time to give results. I'm talking about environments with 400 devices, for example, in something about 6 months to one year, if no one is dedicated, and depending on the consulting company. Some, even certified by CA, was not good. If possible, try to use CA services directly.
IT Teams, after they start to notice that the tool really work, will want to monitor everything. Depending on the company, this will be more or less easy to measure, as ROI. And I'm telling this because usually IT teams don't know how to sell them to C-Levels, and the tool, because of the price, is always a motivation to questions like: "What is this tool? Do you really need it? Is there another way to monitor this?"
