A Not-So-Secret Agent Backlash

Network agents, the once-sexy technology that monitors systems autonomously, are being sternly re-evaluated because of their relative expense. Seizing the initiative, Freshwater Software Inc. has unveiled a Web-services monitoring product, SiteScope, that alerts administrators when a component is in trouble. SiteScope is among the first such agentless products.

As such, it runs without the modules needed by agent products. SiteScope should cost less than $5,000 for coverage of at least 20 servers, Meta Group analyst Corey Ferengul says. SiteScope can be set to execute a Web service, summon diagnostics when a service fails, and support complex XML schema data types. "The downside to such an agentless product is the inability for customers to redirect capacity and avoid outages," Ferengul says. "But SiteScope is so easy for people to buy, and it will tell them when a Web server isn't available."