SaaS vs. Premise-based Monitoring: 9

Transcription

1 SaaS vs. Premise-based Monitoring: 9 reasons why SaaS makes more sense

2 SaaS and Monitoring: An Especially Good Fit By now, most IT managers have some experience with Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, and are aware that cloud-based services provide advantages like low upfront costs, fast deployment, and simplified administration. But the SaaS versus on-premise equation is different for every technology. There are some solution types where a SaaS approach has special benefits that are not obvious at first. In this short paper we will look at why network and server monitoring is particularly suited to a cloud-based model, and how a SaaS monitoring solution can give companies higher reliability, better support, and of course, lower costs. 2

3 1 No Single Point of Failure An inherent flaw with on-premise monitoring products is that they share a single point of failure with the local systems that they are monitoring. For example, if there is a power outage, broken network link, or infrastructure problem affecting the part of the data center housing the monitoring server, then monitoring is disabled at the very time it is needed to assess the situation and help restore operations. The IT staff can be left blind precisely when visibility is most needed. With a SaaS solution, monitoring is run from geographically distributed data centers in the cloud. So if a local outage occurs, a system such as LogicMonitor will still alert the customer that there is an issue. This prevents critical issues from going unnoticed for extended periods. This is a consideration for recovering from major disasters as well as localized problems. 3

4 2 Easier Monitoring of Hybrid Environments While the migration to the cloud is certainly in full swing, few companies flip a switch and move everything into the cloud overnight. It s a gradual process, resulting in hybrid environments where some services run out of the cloud, and some continue running out of a private data center. Configuring premise-based solutions to monitor applications and infrastructure in multiple-locations often requires significant additional expense, as well as complexities in configuring VPN links, and modifying firewall rules to allow outside locations to talk to the main monitoring servers behind company firewalls. SaaS monitoring solutions are architected to allow for seamless, unified monitoring of the entire IT ecosystem, regardless of whether it s physical, virtual, or in the cloud. Customers simply install a lightweight data collector Public in each location (at no additional cost), and data is sent via outgoing only SSL Co-Lo connections to the monitoring data centers for processing. No VPN links or special modifications to firewall rules are required. Private On-Site Hybrid 4

5 3 Fast Deployment Before an on-premise monitoring product can start providing value, administrators need to: Purchase servers and install them at each location. Install and test the monitoring software. Configure monitoring for every device and application to be monitored. Set alert thresholds for every monitored service. Create graphs to help monitor key data and trends. With the size and complexity of today s IT environments, these activities can take weeks or even months. In contrast, a SaaS solution like LogicMonitor can be live and providing value within less than an hour. 5

6 4 As IT environments become more complex, many organizations lack the in-house monitoring expertise required to effectively monitor all of their applications and underlying infrastructure. Good support from the monitoring tools vendor is therefore indispensable, especially when problems occur and when the IT staff needs to assess unusual conditions. Unfortunately, with on-premise products, the monitoring vendor has no direct visibility into the customer s monitoring environment. The customer s IT staff needs to open a ticket and try to explain what they see. The vendor s support staff needs to evaluate this information second-hand and work indirectly through the IT staff to attempt to troubleshoot and resolve the problem. Informational round trips waste everyone s time and delay problem resolution. In addition, support contracts often cost thousands of dollars annually, and may only allow for a limited number of incidents. With a SaaS monitoring solution, the customer gets more than a piece of software. They re buying a service that includes continuous support and training at no additional cost. Provided permission is granted, the vendor s support staff has instantaneous access to customers monitoring data, allowing them to aid in troubleshoot complex problems. The customer essentially gets a team of outsourced IT professionals to consult at no additional cost. 6

7 5 Lower Capital Expense and TCO SaaS adoption has been accelerating. IDC estimates that sales of SaaS and cloud-based applications are growing 24% annually, and will reach $67.3 billion by A recent Gartner survey highlighted some of the factors that are driving this rapid growth, including lower total cost of ownership (TCO), fast deployment, lower capital expenses, and shortages of skilled IT staff to implement on-premises solutions (see Figure 1). 7

8 Lower capital expense and TCO certainly apply to IT infrastructure monitoring. Because monitoring is a mission critical function, on-premise monitoring tools require a hefty server. This means a capital expenditure (CAPEX) of $3,000 - $5,000 in each major location, with a hardware replacement or upgrade every three years or so. SaaS solutions require no capital expense for hardware or software. The monitoring solution provider bears the cost of the entire monitoring infrastructure. Another significant and often overlooked expense when evaluating monitoring tools is the cost of labor. Setting up and maintaining a premise-based monitoring infrastructure, and keeping the monitoring configurations up to date for all applications and underlying infrastructure components such as routers, switches, firewalls, web servers, application servers, database servers, servers, hypervisors, and storage arrays, can easily consume one or more full-time engineers. In contrast, with SaaS-based monitoring, the solution provider is responsible for all monitoring server and infrastructure administration. For example, LogicMonitor employs an entire team of operations experts to maintain their monitoring infrastructure a major expense that the customer avoids. 8

9 6 No Vendor Lock-In On-premise monitoring products generate large sunk costs in terms of capital expenses for hardware and time investment to configure the software for many devices and applications. These sunk costs create switching costs - financial and political barriers that prevent customers from moving to alternatives, even if the alternatives are better. Risks are much lower with SaaS solutions. No CAPEX, fast deployment, automated configuration and month-to-month agreements mean that organizations are free to make the best decision at all times. 7 Higher Reliability On-premise monitoring products can be knocked out of commission by any number of events, including hardware failures, power outages, software bugs, human error, and natural disasters. Any outage or suspected issue requires the customer s own IT staff to troubleshoot and restore the monitoring system back to functioning status. A well-designed SaaS solution provides high levels of redundancy, with backup and replication across geographically distributed data centers, enabling rapid recovery from major interruptions. The SaaS monitoring vendor maintains expert staffs with 24x7 coverage of their infrastructure to ensure maximum uptime. 9

10 8 Scalability and Predictable Budgeting With on-premise monitoring products, when the number of devices and amount of activity to be monitored grows, servers need to be added or upgraded. This is timeconsuming and costly. Also, because upgrade costs are lumpy, they can put an unexpected strain on budgets. SaaS solutions scale on demand, without the CAPEX costs of additional monitoring hardware. Monthly subscription costs are tied to the number of devices being monitored, so they grow smoothly, predictably, and proportionately to the value received. 9 Elevated Security Conventional wisdom says premise-based monitoring solutions are more secure than SaaS. But if you examine security from two perspectives, application level security and physical security level, that is not true. If you are a small company, and have premise based applications, application level security probably isn t of much concern. The company is small, and everyone will be trusted to some degree. The fact that the application is behind a firewall, with no access from outside, does provide fairly good security. The SaaS advantage here is that small companies do not usually have physically secure premise based servers. They are typically in a small server room (or closet), without much in the way of alarms, 24 hour guards, and all the other touted features of datacenters. And if you can physically access a server, you can get to the data on the server. 10

11 As a company grows, they will typically get on top of physical security, but then application security raises its head, as security sensitive applications will now be restricted to a subset of employees. Many premise-based applications (especially open source ones or internally developed ones, it seems) are written without any access control designed in. Frequently many administrators log in to the server (often as root ). And once a company reaches any size, the premise based application will need to be accessed by people outside the firewall (remote offices, teleworkers, etc). Granting that access securely is non-trivial. Yes, you can put reverse proxy firewalls or SSL VPNs to provide some sort of remote access, but now the simple choice of premise based software for security reasons is getting more and more complicated (and expensive). With a SaaS monitoring solution such as LogicMonitor, all data collection happens from a lightweight collector which resides behind your firewall. The collector makes outgoing connections only over SSL, and accepts no connections from the network. Monitoring servers reside in locked cabinets inside of SSAE 16 SOC1 Type 2 data centers, manned 24x7x365, with ingress and egress secured with electronic keycards and biometric hand scans, high resolution motion-sensitive video surveillance, fully redundant power and HVAC, VESDA Fire-threat detection and suppression. Strong internal application controls protect data even from root users. So you are more likely to have less security issues and expense with a SaaS solution than premise based software. 11

12 About LogicMonitor LogicMonitor is a SaaS-based IT monitoring solution that dramatically reduces the complexity and staff time required to monitor your IT infrastructure, whether physical, virtual, or in the cloud. Built by data center operations experts, LogicMonitor s automation and embedded intelligence reduces setup time to just minutes, instead of the weeks or months with premisebased monitoring. To get virtually instant visibility into your applications and underlying infrastructure, get your free trial at Get a quick overview of the leading SaaSbased monitoring solution: Video Overview» Tweet this Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn 12