Tauranga firm talks up monitoring solution

The head of a Tauranga-based IT firm is talking up a unique monitoring solution he says can do things no other system in the world can do.

Rick Mulford, managing director of Delta Technology Solutions, says the solution operates close to the level of Artificial Intelligence – so much so that he named it Monitoring Operations To Help Enterprises Remotely, or MOTHER.

"MOTHER is a framework we have developed to process vast amounts of information," Mulford says.

"It is a trusted advisor that provides important, useable information for better decisions.

Currently, the system processes in excess of five million events per month, disseminating the information down to a few thousand actionable points for Delta's clients.

"We took a 10-month snapshot of the data processed from 217 servers, servicing over 3000 end nodes, in four different countries. We handled over 28 million critical level alerts in this period, and were able to correlate those down to 5506 actionable points," Mulford says.

"The rest are there in our unique reporting portal, but we take away the pain of having to process them. Our monitoring is not just about pinging or probing a service and seeing what's there, it's about finding out why things are happening.

What's impressive is that MOTHER can 'learn' how to deal with incidents based on the events of the past.

"When most apps spot something, they say, have I seen that here? MOTHER can say, have I seen that anywhere? What does it mean when I see that here?

"She has the ability to be quite intuitive in the way she reacts.

The first part of the implementation process is a 90-day logarithmic footprint to understand what is normal at what times within an organisation.

Based on that information, MOTHER can make decisions about unusual incidents which occur, opting to fix them automatically, monitor their progress, or if necessary, alert a staff member.

If multiple alerts relate to the same incident, MOTHER will pull these together to save the staff's time, and provide solution options with the alert. If there are multiple staff members working on the solution, MOTHER co-ordinates their efforts and keeps everyone informed to prevent wasted effort. Once the problem is addressed, MOTHER lets everyone know and closes the alert.

The system operates remotely around the world, frees up staff and puts minimal stress on the client's servers, meaning IT resources aren't being redirected from their primary business functions; this allows managers to work on productive activities rather than 'fighting fires'.

Mulford says MOTHER works at such a comprehensive level that compliance standards like PCI and DSS are easier to achieve and maintain; the system even advises clients when they are drifting outside of the limits.

"Compliance is like doing taxes – you do it for a year then you put it away, and when it comes around again you have to do it in a mad panic.

"If you keep it on track the whole time, when it comes up for an annual review it becomes a rubber stamping exercise, rather than a foot stamping exercise.

Check out Delta's website for more info.