Microsoft Certified Consultants

Microsoft Operations Manager: Features and Benefits

 For small businesses in the Arizona, Southern Nevada and Southern California, DCI's Microsoft-certified support team offers computer help and IT consulting services for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) and for the growing family of Application Management Packs that extend the power of MOM to a broad range of business-critical services. DCI can help you benefit from MOM by providing needs assessment, installation, configuration, customization, on-site and remote technical support and troubleshooting, Help Desk support, security, and outsourcing.

What Is Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM)?
Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) is a next-generation network management software platform that monitors the availability, performance and security of your information system by proactively identifying problems and trends occurring on servers across your entire network.

MOM operates by automatically scanning event logs from critical servers, then filtering, consolidating and analyzing these system events based on an extensive built-in knowledge base. When MOM detects a problem or potentially dangerous trend, it can execute special remedial scripts or generate alarms to notify appropriate service personnel. For example, MOM could automatically isolate an infected server to prevent the spread of a detected virus. MOM also produces trend reports so you can track the health of your information network and make sure that problem alerts have been satisfactorily resolved.

A key to MOM's power is its incorporation of standards-based Management Packs for specific application and infrastructure servers. Available from Microsoft as well as from a growing number of third-party vendors, Management Packs contain pre-built processing rules that can react to events, thresholds and alerts monitored by MOM. Management Packs can also give IT staff expert advice on how to handle specific problems by automatically extracting relevant articles from the Microsoft Knowledge Base.

The basic MOM configuration includes Management Pack modules for:

• Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2000
• Active Directory
• Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP)
• Microsoft Message Queuing
• Domain Name Service
• Internet Information Services (IIS)
• Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
• Microsoft Systems Management Server 2.0
• File Replication services (FRS)
• Windows Internet Name Services (WINS)
• Routing and Remote Access
• Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC)
• Terminal Services
• Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS)
• Windows NT 4.0 system log

• Exchange Server 2003, Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange 5.5
• Site Server 3.0
• SNA Server 4.0
• SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 7.0
• Commerce Server 2000
• ISA Server 2004
• Application Center 2000
• Host Integration Server 2000
• Proxy Server 2.0
• Microsoft .NET Framework
• Network Load Balancing and Cluster Services

Third-party Management Packs cover a growing range of servers and applications including Lotus Domino Servers, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems Solaris. NetIQ offers a Security Managament Pack that allows MOM to monitor antivirus programs.

Management Packs are standardized so that advanced network administrators can customize and extend them to match the special needs of specific IT environments.

Benefits of MOM
MOM increases the availability of business-critical applications by proactively identifying and helping to resolve problems before they can bring down a server. For an example of how this MOM has saved money for a Arizona, Southern Nevada, Southern California and Colorado Area small business, read the MOM Case Study.

MOM can optimize network performance by checking predefined performance thresholds and usage patterns on key servers, allowing network managers to be more proactive in adding performance-related resources and to eliminate problem areas before they cause serious network bottlenecks.

MOM reduces IT staffing costs by simplifying the tasks of network management. Because MOM can intelligently filter and consolidate massive amounts of data collected from many servers, fewer network managers are needed to oversee IT operations. In addition, MOM's ability to act automatically in response to alerts makes it possible to create rules-based scripts that can take complex corrective actions which would otherwise require the manual intervention of technical personnel.

By automatically generating alerts and distributing them via email or wireless pagers to predetermined support staff, MOM makes it easier for IT organizations to meet service level agreements. MOM's Knowledge Base helps resolve problems faster, and MOM's reports ensure that job tickets don't fall through the cracks. Automatic 24x7 monitoring and alert generation also allows companies to their allocate IT staff more efficiently so that more productive work can be accomplished without compromising network support.

In general, MOM gives small businesses the benefits of full-time network monitoring plus expertise in problem resolution without having to pay for a large, full-time IT staff.

How DCI Can Help You Benefit from MOM
Setting up Microsoft Operations Manager's powerful monitoring software can be a challenge. With over four years of experience with the NetIQ technology upon which MOM is based, DCI's IT consulting experts can help you select appropriate MOM components, deploy and configure MOM, and create custom rules, scripts, reports and alerts for your enterprise. DCI can also document MOM's server monitoring policies and procedures.

You can outsource problem response to DCI's Microsoft-certified support team. With years of network management experience, these IT experts can also act efficiently on the information generated by MOM to keep mission-critical systems running smoothly. By analyzing trend reports and responding efficiently to alerts, DCI can resolve emerging problems before they cause downtime or fix critical problems as soon as they occur. In most cases, DCI can solve problems remotely, saving time and money. For severe problems requiring onsite service, DCI can quickly dispatch a field engineer to the location of any small business in  the Arizona, Southern Nevada, Southern California and Colorado Area.

DCI's depth of expertise makes it possible, when necessary, to escalate problems to some of the Arizona, Southern Nevada, Southern California and Colorado Area's most skilled IT experts.

If you are looking for a Microsoft Operations Manager consulting specialist or a MOM-based IT outsourcing service package, call (866)666-7731 or send email to information@dcicorporation.com.

DCI's Consulting Services for Microsoft Technology
For small businesses and mid-sized businesses in the Arizona, Southern Nevada, Southern California and Colorado Area, Arizona, Southern Nevada and Southern California, DCI's Microsoft-certified consultants offer computer help and IT consulting services for the entire family of Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers, Windows Server 2003, and Microsoft line-of-business applications. DCI's migration, integration, update, support, and custom programming services include planning and system design, installation and deployment. Find out more about DCI's Microsoft technology consulting services.