Visual Network Systems integrates network management tool with IBM Tivoli

Visual Network Systems has announced that its Visual Performance Manager (VPM) offering can now be integrated with IBM's Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus tool to offer a more seamless way for IT managers to monitor applications.

The move means that companies can use VPM through the Tivoli dashboard alongside other management tools to provide an overview of the performance of key applications on the network and troubleshoot issues when they arise.

The firm's vice president, Daryle DeBalski, told V3.co.uk that the integration will help staff keep track of key indicators on applications in use on the network, and that teaming up with a firm of IBM's size will broaden its reach.

"With this integration we can help customers enhance the management of their workloads by giving them a rich set of web services so they can integrate into our tools," he said.

"We recognise that bigger companies have more complex deployments and are going to have a set of tools, like Tivoli, that we want to integrate with, so we can be part of the overall workflow rather than trying to do everything ourselves."

VPM has been trialled with several customers and is accessed through a web service layer for which a charge is made, but beyond that the tool is free to access through Tivoli. It is available now.

DeBalski added that, while companies can integrate on top of larger systems from major organisations, it is not always straightforward.

"We will extend VPM further to offer this seamless integration. It can be integrated with other services already by using the VPM Kennex tool, but this requires configuration work by customers and more service support from us," he said.

Visual Network Systems unveiled OmniPoint Element in May designed to help businesses and service providers pinpoint issues on remotely hosted cloud applications.