Cancer Research
UK Cancer Research UK is deploying
Groundwork Monitor Professional, an open source systems
management tool, to support its mixed MacOS and Windows desktop and
server IT infrastructure.
The open source product will be used to monitor 60 Mac servers,
260 Windows servers and bespoke scientific applications running on
Mac/Linux clients.
"The big four system management tools were reviewed - BMC,
Tivoli, CA Unicenter and HP Openview - but we found none offered a
viable option," said Nathan Lynch, Infrastructure Manager,
Information Systems, Cancer Research UK. "There was little support
on the Mac side and we could not manage our bespoke applications
while staying within the allocated budget."
The charity, the largest funder of cancer research in Europe,has
been using Groundwork since April. Open source specialist
DSP Global modified the scripts within Groundwork to support
Cancer Research UK's IT infrastructure. The basic software took two
weeks to implement, with a further six weeks to configure
Groundwork to support Cancer Research's applications.
"Groundwork reduces a lot of the work involved in testing
servers and applications post patching. We used to take 10
man-hours per month to test applications. Now it only takes two
man-hours," said Lynch
Over the next 12 months, Lynch hopes the software will assist
the IT department at Cancer Research UK to obtain ITIL
accreditation.
Groundwork is currently monitoring 51 servers, including
applications like Microso0ft Exchange, SQL Server and Siebel.
