VIAcode APM services
Most of our engagements are tailored to our customers' needs, budgets, constraints and technical specifics. We use the following standard offerings as a building blocks to create a solution that meets your needs.
VIAcode Premium support
Our premium support services are provided in addition to Microsoft Customer Support Services. We help you with advanced troubleshooting, customization and integration questions that fall out of the scope of the traditional support services. This is a pay-as-you-go service purchased in 4-hour increments. Premium support is normally done in the e-mail, however we can accommodate for remote assistance and phone conferences as well. Please visit support page for additional details.
VIAcode APM Labs
We prepare a staged environment that you can use to evaluate the technologies, train your employees or educate yourself. Standard demo environment includes the Talking Heads demo application, System Center Operations Manager 2012, AVIcode-powered management packs. The lab is a hosted server that you access remotely. Using the AVIcode lab you can understand the basics of the System Center APM, learn how to monitor a simple web application, detect and fix six different problems. This is our most affordable offering and it is often included other services. VIAcode APM Labs are pay-as-you-go service.
Paid Proof of Concept (POC) implementation
We build a POC implementation on premises using your application environment. Normally POCs are done using staging or production environments, or subsets of thereof (e.g. one of the servers in the cluster). During the POC implementation we plan, design, deploy and implement an APM strategy for a smaller subset of your environment (one application or maybe even a portion of it) of your choice. The goal of the POC is to answer your questions about APM and address your concerns. Usually POCs are done as a first step of the larger implementations as a risk mitigation measure. In some cases we combine POCs with trainings and premium support arrangement, so that your organization can take over full APM implementation with a little help from our mentors. An average POC engagement lasts 1 to 4 weeks.
APM implementation using System Center
VIAcode does the full implementation of APM practices in your organization or a subset of thereof. Usually implementation includes the following steps:
- Assessment - what are the tools and practices your organization uses already, what are the risks your environments are exposed to, what is your current architecture and process, etc.
- Planning - defining the scope, requirements, training and implementation schedule, resources, roles, inventory, project plan.
- Elaboration (if necessary) - POCs, tests in controlled environments.
- Design and plan adjustments - initial health model, integration points with other systems, process improvements, requirements for custom management packs (if necessary) etc.
- Monitoring infrastructure setup - System Center Operations Manager deployment (if necessary), setting up and configuring applications monitoring, reports, health models, alerts, implementing custom integration (if needed), etc.
- Training - for administrators, developers, end-users and managers. This includes level-100 through level 300 role-focused sessions with self-paced labs and live discussions. You keep session recordings and training materials for your own use.
- Iterative improvements - we watch your teams work, provide guidance and help with configuration changes to accommodate for their requests.
- Premium support - your employees can contact our consultants or premium support to get answers to their questions or problems.
APM implementations are usually take 2-6 weeks (active phase).
Custom integration and management packs
In some cases it makes sense to design custom management packs or even make some improvements to your applications (e.g. add advanced performance counters, improve diagnostics and error reporting, etc). In these cases we come up with specs and engage our manageability division to do and development and code improvements as necessary.
Please
contact us to discuss your APM project - we provide free assessments.