Know your goals.

Over at eWeek, Chris Preimesberger has some great food for thought on some misconceptions in the data center monitoring arena. For me, the overall takeaway is that you must have a good grasp of the goals for the data center and the overall organization to make the best decision in choosing a monitoring package. Actually, the idea that you should attempt to get everything into one single monitoring package may not be the best way to reach your goals. Remember that each person and job task within the data center is likely to have different goals which may require targetted monitoring and management for most efficient use of their time.