We are considering moving from ipMonitor to APM because of the aggressive pricing seen ths week. We are troubled though at what seems like a overly "network centric" application that still doesn't seem to "do" Windows very well.
For instance, it seems that during a discovery, we only have "network options" available. What about discovering out of a directory service structure like eDirectory or Active Directory? Or even out of some asset management system? We also have some serious asset data in our directory like location, city, who manages the device, etc and this wealth of data seems to be useless to ipMonitor or APM.
Why cannot these applications utilize the VAST wealth of information available via WMI on a windows box? Eveything is available without even installing an agent? Ever heard of powershell?
We're also looking to "group" machines and applications using data in our directory. For instance all the Exchange Servers are in their own organizational unit but again, APM seems unable to utilize this. I even notcied that authenticating via AD was only recenlt added and not even transparently, but they have to type in their credentials again on a form. This seems very antiquated.
Is there integration I am missing? Or are the users of APM mostly network people who happen to have application and server managment thrust upon them and they don't know what they are missing with many Windows management tools?
Comments are welcomed. :)
TIA.
