An installation would be based upon the Silver Foundation License, which includes the AppManager Management Consoles, one base agent per server, one hardware module per server, and unlimited Application/Messaging/Database/Windows Systems modules for a base list price of $3,495.

For years, data centers have relied on systems management tools to monitor the performance of hardware, software and applications throughout the IT environment, typically using different tools and metrics to track activities for each domain. However that traditional approach to performance management is proving inadequate in many data centers today as more complex environments—think distributed applications, heterogeneous operating systems, server virtualization and a multitude of configurations—tax both existing tools and staff to keep up. Essentially, data center staff has to monitor more stuff in more places, so deploying performance management tools boils down to improving productivity. By automating routine monitoring, diagnostic and reporting tasks across heterogeneous environments, the judges singled out performance management tools from NetIQ Corp., Akorri Networks Inc., and CiRBA Inc.