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PacketTrap Challenges CA And IBM

PacketTrap, a network management startup with about 40,000 users, is coming out with a new platform that CEO Steve Goodman says will compete with CA Unicenter and IBM Tivoli. You read that right: little PacketTrap versus the two behemoths of systems and network management. Goodman may be crazy, but he's not stupid.

I last wrote about PacketTrap in March when it introduced pt360 Pro, a professional-grade version of its no-cost, no-frills network monitoring tool. (See “PacketTrap Goes Pro.") Since the company launched last year, it has been working its way up the network management food chain. PacketTrap started with pt360 basic in November 2007, followed by pt360 Pro in March 2008. It's now introducing a more full-featured system, PacketTrap Perspective, that works in conjunction with pt360. Goodman calls Perspective "the bread and butter" of PacketTrap's business. "This is the product we have been building for a year and a half," he says. Its release date is Sept. 5.

PacketTrap describes Perspective as a "network troubleshooting and remediation" system. It does a bunch of things that pt360 Pro doesn't do, including Web access, policy setting, trends analysis and reporting via a built-in database, remote office support, router configuration and backup, and monitoring of HTTP, POP, and event logs. Of course, that costs more. While Pt360 Pro lists for $1,295, Perspective starts at $1,995 and ranges up to $20,000, depending on the number of network nodes supported.

In general, that's a fraction of what IT departments pay for full-blown management platforms like CA Unicenter and IBM Tivoli, which is why I say Goodman may be crazy, but he's not stupid. He knows that many IT departments overspend on systems and network management by licensing more than they need. He wants them to take a look at Perspective as an alternative.

Of course, the flip side of that proposition is that you get what you pay for. CA Unicenter and IBM Tivoli are full-fledged enterprise systems with all the bells and whistles and dozens of related applications. Tivoli, for example, also offers asset management, security, and storage software. You won't get that with PacketTrap.

In reality, PacketTrap's closer competitor is SolarWinds, whose Orion network management tools are priced in the same range as PacketTrap's.

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