AlarmPoint releases version 3.1 of its event management system. New in this release is integrated support for RIM, Avaya VoIP/SIP presence technology, and better reliability.While AlarmPoint doesn't meet our "letter of the law" for definition of a startup, it's an interesting company with cool technology that's not well known out of its immediate space, so what the heck, right? Rules schmules.

AlarmPoint started business in 2000 and has focused on automated event resolution since its inception. The company currently claims more than 750 customers which range in size and need from a small grower of strawberries in California to some of the largest telcos, financial services, and energy companies in the world.

Automated event resolution typically means that a system like HP OpenView, BMC, or IBM Tivoli discerns an event that needs human resolution -- it could be a server crash, or a persistent network problem. The event is then bubbled up to the resolution manager whose job it is to decide the severity, the best person or group to resolve the problem, and the best way to contact the resolver. While this is the typical mode of use, there's nothing that stops an IT shop from sending events from an ERP or sales force automation system. These could be used to let salespeople know when new orders come in, or when existing orders are filled.

What's new in version this release is an initiative with Research in Motion to incorporate the BlackBerry Enterprise Server with AlarmPoint. The integration improves performance, allows for encrypted transport, and allows for proper data retention for industries that require that sort of thing.

AlarmPoint also now supports Avaya's presence technology through some proprietary SIP extensions. It also works with more generic SIP/VoIP solutions, such as Asterisk.

The final improvement in this release is certified (by a Canadian Telco certifier) four nines(99.99%) reliability. Getting the certification required such things as hot-swappable, N+1 everything as well as N-way clustering with real-time data replication between sites.

AlarmPoint is one of those products that can really help an IT organization become more proactive. For most, generating events isn't the hard part, but doing something with them is hard. By matching up events with those best able to handle them, AlarmPoint goes a long way toward addressing that issue.