Solar Winds Tries to Reign in Virtual Systems

Virtualization has taken hold in small and medium companies, however, one challenge is managing those connections. In response, SolarWinds enhanced its Orion Network Performance Monitor (NPM), so it offers these companies more insight into how their virtual systems are performing.SolarWinds has used social networking functions (input from 40,000 IT managers) to drive product enhancements, and the latest release company, version 10, includes a number of user initiated, new features. The products virtual data center monitoring feature works with VMware vSphere, ESX 3.5 and ESXi hosts and tracks the performance of Cisco Nexus 1000V switches. A new topology mapping function displays connections among virtual devices on network maps. A network discovery enhancement automatically identifies new network elements, servers, and virtual devices. The vendor improved the products user interface, so it features module tabs, drop down lists, a notification bar, and a link to the companys blog. Pricing for Orion NPM starts at $2,475.

SolarWinds has done good job delivering low cost, functional management tools to small and medium business. The company has supplemented its NPM product with modules that support items, such as performance monitoring and Service Level Agreement management. In addition, the company has branched out into storage management. The companys goal is to provide corporations with insight into all of their IT systems.

The strategy seems to be paying dividends for the vendor. Its first quarter revenue was up 40% as the company has fared better than most during the recent downturn. SolarWinds has done well in understanding the needs of small and medium businesses for inexpensive, functional management tools. But the company is in a market that is seeing more competition. In addition to the big four who are moving downstream to small and medium businesses, there are a number of vendors using new models, such as open source or advertising based revenue models, to attract customers. To date, SolarWinds has managed various market changes well. The new enhancements seem to mesh with customer needs, but the company will face more challenges as the market continues to evolve.