The technology company Pandora FMS, specialized in system monitoring, takes a step further towards growth becoming the first national technology capable of offering monitoring solutions, both for IBM i systems (formerly known as AS400) and for much more modern systems.

A development that, after several decades, means the full coexistence of IBM i with more recent systems.

PFMS and monitoring system integrated with IBM i

Pandora FMS, through the solution developed by the French company M81, will provide this service to multiple important customers. 

*M8 developed monitoring software for IBM i. 

After the agreement, Pandora FMS will be the first and only one in Spain to be able to combine solutions for both up-to-date systems and IBM i.

The agreement with M81 is a key alliance

The French company has been working in the sector since 1988, becoming one of the benchmarks both nationally and internationally. 

In addition to being specialized in IBM i, they provide solutions such as database recovery after serious failures or advanced monitoring to improve IT team operations.

IBM i, also known as AS400, is a system considered as legacy or obsolete that has 34 years of history. 

Its versions have been updated and improved throughout all this time. The evidence is that many multinationals keep it still in their structure. 

The so-called IBM Power System and the IBM i operating system continue to be recognized, but IT managers and CEOs are choosing to work with open servers and operating systems that offer many possibilities available in the market.

Therefore, they stopped working with IBM Power System and IBM i.

Due to this legacy system status, companies that use IBM i recognize the need to develop their own verifications or buy solutions that improve their IT structure performance and optimize their costs. 

Until now, they could only hire specialized monitoring systems as far as IBM is concerned. 

However, after the development of Pandora FMS and M84, Spanish companies will be able to implement a single powerful monitoring system that combines the management of both newer systems and IBM i.

On a global scale

As a sign of the potential IBM i has, there are institutions such as the Government of Andorra that have this type of technology. 

Although it is usually the financial and logistics sectors the ones that are managed the most through the old AS400, now known as IBM i. 

Logistics giants such as Cargo Partner, banks such as DZ Bank or insurance companies such as Marsh & McLennan are some of the examples of large formations related to the world of IBM i.

Monitoring and growth

Monitoring, it should be remembered, is one of the bases of the efficient growth of any company today. 

According to internal data from Pandora FMS, there are digital administrations that have improved their response time by 200%. 

In the retail sector, the workload can be reduced by up to 30% thanks to resource optimization. 

Percentages that translate into cost savings for large multinationals and, above all, IT resource optimization for other areas.

“From now on, Spanish companies that used IBM i will no longer have to acquire different monitoring services to be able to manage their entire infrastructure.

Thanks to the M81 software and its integration with Pandora FMS solution, a legacy system like IBM i will be easy to monitor like any other system,”

explains Sancho Lerena, CEO of Pandora FMS

“This also shows that the IT sector continues to grow in Spain.

Despite having waited for a long time, this development is a turning point for companies that still have systems, such as IBM i, which, despite being legacy, continue to have a lot of influence on IT management for the business of many companies,” highlights the chairman of the Spanish company.

Food retailers reduce the workload accumulated by their IT areas by almost 30% thanks to monitoring.

Controlling data and extensive information from the whole company, by controlling, supervising and ordering everything through the same system, allows to reduce the times of action in the face of possible errors and failures, improves resource management and organization and increases the effectiveness of the business activity.

In addition, monitoring saves costs.

IT monitoring and retailers, what you need to know

Large food distribution firms carry out continuous processes to guarantee the supply of products on the shelves, so the volume of information generated by executing these tasks throughout the day is remarkable. 

If you add to that amount of data the diversity of systems in the IT structure with which retailers work on a daily basis, the route to obtain valuable, clear and practical information becomes even more complicated. 

The difficulty is greater if, in order to analyze these data, there are unqualified personnel without the support of a reliable platform to make their work easier.

This situation highlights that the fact of not having a monitoring system multiplies the actions necessary to obtain information on the activity of the technological structure of the company or the state of each of its facilities:

This slows down a company’s power to act and its ability to react. 

That, after all, translates into a loss of value both economically and in terms of performance, especially concerning the area of human resources.

What do we achieve with monitoring in the retail sector?

Through monitoring, it is possible to access, even remotely, the entire IT structure of a company. 

That is, by means of a central console you may organize and control an entire technology park. 

This, despite being able to present a heterogeneous panorama with a wide diversity of systems that sometimes do not support each other, goes under the command of a monitoring system by which it can be accessed.

Monitoring makes it possible to replace an existing system and it is also capable of coexisting with others. 

The kind of flexibility that is essential in the sector, because it allows to integrate new stuff to the existing system. 

This observability implies the ability to bring together all data sources and provide useful information for the company. 

The more complex IT systems are, the more important it is to simplify their monitoring.

That way, servers from different operating systems can be monitored by the same controller. 

And in turn, every time an error is detected anywhere in the park, the information can immediately reach those responsible, shortening the reaction time and anticipating more serious internal operating situations.

Monitoring, in addition to making control and error anticipation easier within the company’s performance, it also helps to find out aspects as simple as the state of the toner of a series of printers, or the time workers clocked in. 

Monitoring companies ends up leading to cost savings and service improvement.

Thanks to appliying monitoring systems, retailers in the food sector acquire a tool that enhances the control of the technological infrastructure that guarantees the traceability of their products throughout the distribution chain; from its origin to its arrival to the final customer or to sales establishments. 

In addition, the implementation of this data technology allows monitoring the status of the systems from a centralized position and anticipating breakdowns and errors, saving workload and improving delivery times.

In the food market there have already been companies that have opted for this development of their structures. 

An example of this is Fripozo, belonging to the Fuertes Group, which implemented a monitoring system thanks to its agreement with the Spanish company Pandora FMS. 

As a result of this adaptation, it achieved higher responsiveness to any system failure that could affect the control and distribution of deep-frozen food.

In this particular case, one of the concerns for the company was to achieve some degree of flexibility. 

That is, that something specific could be monitored without this involving a large investment of time and local resources without external intervention. 

Fripozo, after this association with Pandora FMS, managed to reach that goal.

In addition to Fripozo, other distributors such as Salvesen Logistics have also confirmed operational improvements after monitoring their IT structure. 

The company, which like Fripozo took its chances on the Spanish Pandora FMS, came to reveal a reduction of 24% of the workload of its IT area. 

As revealed from their organization, the attention that was constantly paid to the health of the system was focused on improving services and products.

The sector, with more and more competition, is devoted to a necessary organization of the internal data that are produced throughout the same day in a company. 

Any mistake can lead to a chain failure, a misuse of their own resources and a point in favor of competition in the market.

“The monitoring carried out by systems such as Pandora FMS represents clear economic savings for companies that implement it in their IT infrastructure. Reaction times to any failure are shorter and therefore have less impact on the company. But, in addition, internal processes have also been improved as different business models have been discovered“,

explains Sancho Lerena, CEO and founder of Pandora FMS.

The increasing use of new technologies by the population has increased the risk of theft. Not only on the street can one fall victim to thieves, but one can also lose sensitive information such as passwords or banking keys in the cloud.

In this case it is even easier not to realize that virtual robbers are committing a crime. 

In addition, security no longer depends on you, but the security of third parties, those we shared our data with, becomes important.

What you don’t know about the security of your platforms

How can you maximize individual security on the network? 

Easy-peasy. 

Periodically modifying passwords and following some basic tips. 

The first thing is to know whether the user has been affected by any breach in any platform. The process could be complex for someone who is not really used to all of this, but there are free and secure portals where you may just enter some identifying data of your account to find out whether the passwords are in danger.

Haveibeenpwned.com is one of the examples. 

*As if it were a Google search engine, users only have to enter their email or phone number to find out whether the passwords of that profile have been leaked. 

In case that leak is confirmed (a message appears in just one second and in a very intuitive red color), the procedure is simple: 

Go to all those accounts and change the password. 

As experts indicate, you have to set different passwords depending on the platform.

Security monitoring

Security monitoring is used to control key security aspects, such as backup verification, or the execution of anti-virus security programs.

The most powerful organizations on the market are a clear example of the importance of cloud security and data protection. 

Until recently there was a specific department to manage all IT information and its protection, but the increase of that data bag and the increase of the danger in the cloud have turned monitoring into the most effective solution. 

Monitoring the IT structure of a company means centralizing the control of all the information and, in addition, it allows to alert and anticipate each error. 

In addition, those in charge, both of the IT structure and of data security, do not have as much workload and can perform their functions 100%. 

“Our monitoring solution, for example, strengthens security where it is installed. 

Businesses are placing increasing emphasis on the security of their IT information, and monitoring is critical to that end. 

Any failure or error is reported instantly, so action is faster and losses smaller. 

However, ordinary users should not forget that their information is also valuable for cyber criminals”, underlines the expert at Pandora FMS, aware of the interest of large organizations in protecting their data with systems such as monitoring.

Conclusion

Cybercrime has increased over time. 

Users, given the number of processes that must be developed online, share more and more information. 

A scenario that has made companies take their chances on monitoring systems such as that of Pandora FMS and that extends to individuals the need to protect their data on the network.

The work is hard and there are high expectations, but we don’t give up! The fight goes on and every day we are happier with what we achieve and what we mean to our users.

Therefore, Pandora FMS is proud to announce its mention as an  Emerging Favorite  in 2022 Shortlist for Server Monitoring Software and APM by   Capterra, a free online service that helps organizations find the right software.

Pandora FMS is always among the favorites. Capterra knows this

*As many of you may already know, Capterra Shortlist is an independent assessment that evaluates user reviews and online search activity to generate a list of market leaders in the software space that offer the most popular solutions. (Have a look at the Capterra Shortlist methodology here.)

As it could not be otherwise, our CEO and colleague Sancho Lerena has wanted to make some comments on this achievement:

“The first thing I would like to say is thank you. Sometimes it seems that one does not give enough thanks and there is much to thank, both to our coworkers and users, and even the Capterra platform itself. 

Especially because there are so many contributions and because it is absolutely always a huge honor to receive this kind of mention.” 

Here is a sample of our recognition in table format:

There is quite a wide range of solutions offered by monitoring as a service to any company, from performing any analysis to detect the root cause of the issue to determining the path of the failure.

Here goes…

Our opinion on monitoring as a service

One of the most important and obvious benefits it brings to the table is that it solves training problems of workers involved or just solves the shortage of talent of these workers right away. 

It may sound a bit harsh… but it is what it is. 

The increase in the amount of information available in companies, and the obligation to be able to manage this IT structure well means that workers must constantly be better qualified.

In addition, the increasing importance of IT means that infrastructure managers have a certain amount of work overload. 

Something that with a monitoring system does not happen! 

Rather the other way around, monitoring as a service establishes a theoretical bridge between technology and business, drawing a scheme where you can easily detect where the source of the problem is, saving time and actions to the operating team.

Monitoring reduces the importance of the traditional involvement of people from different areas of the organization and the work overload that managers in this process may have. 

To sum up, monitoring systems control all data and allow access to information from the same platform, avoiding that those in charge of this area have to stay aware of several fronts without fully concentrating on a single one. 

Also inactivity cost is reduced!

Let’s get to the point!

“You must take into account that the transformation of a given company implies that there is more software. 

And, therefore, more business areas that depend on technology. A series of changes that imply the need to hire more competent profiles. 

Everything with the aim for all pieces to fit perfectly, both the computer and its software as well as the network and the technician who handles it “. 

Explains Sancho Lerena, CEO of Pandora FMS, as you surelyl know, an international reference in monitoring.

An example of this need is that the growth of hybrid infrastructures is 25% per year according to IDC data. 

For that reason, many companies are taking their chances on taking out their IT monitoring infrastructure to save money and especially time.

This process of getting the entire IT organization under the umbrella of the same system also helps the infrastructure manager, as they have higher capacity to manage its records. 

On the one hand, it collects all the data despite the fact that it is a large volume. 

And, secondly, it concentrates access to all that information on a single centralized console.

In conclusion, we get over the lack of time for the worker to be aware of fundamental tasks such as security or data management. 

It also gets rid of the possible lack of capacity to adapt to the different operating systems that may exist in the same company. 

And, lastly, the workload involved in facing a constant data flow where any minimal error must be detected is minimized. 

Systems such as Splunk, Datadog or Pandora FMS itself help in the process.

Conclusions

Through monitoring, it is possible to use information in a reactive way, anticipating problems and alerts received; preventive, since analyses are obtained that help to be prepared for any worst-case scenario; and retrospective, since the emerged crises are also studied to find out the extent of their impact and know how to take measures properly in the future.