Why Another Network Monitoring Software Package?

We created MTD Sentry after trying to manage cutting edge video systems using standard network monitoring products. Some used SNMP only - and left big parts of the system unmanaged. Others had WMI and likewise left holes in managing the system. Then there were SNMP based products with WMI add-ons that still left holes because there is more to it than these two technologies address. In addition, all of these products, despite "auto-discovery" were difficult to configure. We spent $100,000 on one product, brought in a programmer for several weeks at additional expense did a lot of development and still failed to have a viable solution.

What were some of the problems?

We got alerts on top of alerts; it seemed there was no way to stop them. Then, if we wanted the alerting that had been put on one PC added to a new one - there was no way to just clone the settings. It all had to be entered fresh into forms for the new box. After all that we had a failure but the system didn't alert us. “Oh, that alert didn't show up in the WMI metrics. We can program alerts on the event log,” the programmer told us. "I can probably knock it out in three or four hours." "How much are we paying you an hour?"

Our product tech guy told us the errors wouldn't show up in the event log. The designers had a number of system logs and it might be in one of those. There were about 7 different logs monitoring different aspects of the system and they all used a little different format. "Oh," said the programmer, "we don't support that directly. We need to start a custom project. It will probably take about a month if we can do it." How much are we paying this guy?

Do you guys know about video?

"Hey do you think you can tell us what video materials reside in the different parts of the system, we asked?" Our high end monitoring system programmer sat and looked puzzled. Then he said, "we can auto-discover and ping these devices and tell you when they are down - look, here's the uptime too!"

How can I monitor the things that affect my operation - I've got more than just an IP network here?

Cutting edge broadcast television, digital cinema, satellite, and video conference systems don't fit the mold of traditional network monitoring. A cookie cutter approach will not work. Monitoring must be tailored to your operational needs. That's why we made MTD Sentry. It has all the tools in place to reach in and grab the data that you need using whatever means required; yeah, we really have all of that built in.

Then the Sentry will digest it, collate it, create reports, and create a set of alerts that keep you on top of what is happening. Not only that, MTD Sentry is designed to do this at an enterprise level. The parts that make up your system don't have to be in the same room, the same building, the same state, or even the same country. MTD Sentry collects data and presents it in a common display and alerting view for ease of management. Your views can be block diagrams, Icons, abstract drawings, or maps; it can even use Google Earth so you can zoom around the world and know what's going on.

MTD Systems offers the most complete network monitoring tools for today’s multi vendor environment. Media, data, and control pass between many different products from many different manufactures. The MTD Systems solution integrates this complex interplay into a single, unified, network monitoring system. Our philosophy is to watch all of it, integrate the information and make it as meaningful as possible, look for the warnings and tell you about them. As you'll hear us say, "on-air failures don’t always have to happen, there are warnings first. Tell us what keeps you up at night and well help you design a network monitoring solution.

Monitoring Technology Development Systems
Advanced Network Monitoring/Network Management

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