Sorry for my previous mail that was sent empty, due to a mouse clicking bug ;-) So, at last, here is the summary of the answers, plus additional information resulting from meetings I had with some vendors in the last days : First of all, one contributor emphazises on the fact that focusing on people and process is at least as important as on the tools used for NMS. Now the products : - Infovista : According to someone (Hi Mike,see you on rs-sp ;-) ), the product is considered to be flexible to build SLA reporting package, and very customizable to specific needs. According to another one: "Our NOC uses it and it just is not useful in any way, it usually is not common sense, the implementation is not straight- forward, it is awkward, and makes shortcuts that shall not be made". no comments ....

From a meeting I had with Infovista recently, my personal feelings are a mix of both opinions : It is surely a powerful tool, very customizable and scalable, but quite complex and heavy to deploy, and it costs a fortune (multiple hundreds of K$, not to say more).

- Concord :

From one contributor :"horrible in multi-vendor environments" I have briefly met a Concord integrator, the product seems quite straight and simple to deploy, but very limited in terms of customization (all changes require C developpment).

From the contributor :"They are the prefered vendor for both Cisco & Micromuse when it comes to

- Proviso : I have met the people from Quallaby today, the product looks both simple to install and powerful in terms flexibility and scalability. It might be a good product for perfs monitoring and customer SLA reports, but I had some rumors of possible bankrupcy of Quallaby ... I need to check more about it. - Netcool : seems to be quite a reference on the market, I only had good but not detailed opinions on it. - Cisco Works: not recommended by some people, or to be used for Natkit, which requires the NSA (Network supported account) level of support from Cisco (which is not cheap at all ;-). Quite an interesting doc recommended on NOC topics in general : http://www.cisco.com/networkers/nw02/presos/pws/docs/PS-510.pdf Other products that have been recommended by people on the list : - Smarts : http://www.smarts.com/ . The product looks interesting, and it was recommended by several persons on the list. Regarding my personal needs, I am not sure how well it is supported in Europe, and especially in France .... - LINMOR : www.linmor.com : a Canadian product. performance management" I might have the same problem that with Smarts in terms of finding here a reseller and appropriate support ... - SpiderMon, from Pathway Communication (a Canadian ISP reselling its in house NM tool) : It seems to be an all-in-1 product covering the whole FCAPS range. I can give more details on the product for person requesting it. An interesting article comparing Spectrum, Patrol, Netcool, and Smarts : http://www.networkcomputing.com/1316/1316f2.html All comments welcomed. ________________________ Marc Rapoport Architecture Dpt Completel tel : +33 1 72 92 25 38 fax: +33 6 09 76 56 79 m.rapoport@completel.fr ________________________