SNMP & STLM SNMP & STLM explained The industry standard SNMP monitoring solution has been utilised for over 20 years and connects directly to equipment being monitored (e.g. LAN switch) and reports back the basic information being gathered by the device. The SNMP information will typically include straightforward information like if the device is turned on, how busy a server's CPU is or how much space is left on a hard drive.

Proactively monitoring a network with SNMP will help to highlight a busy CPU or avoid downtime by alerting an IT Support company that a hard drive only has 5% free storage left, however the service is unable to recognise software such as operating systems or applications.

» How does SNMP & STLM connect to Wanstor?

"SNMP works at the basic hardware level whereas STLM has the ability to delve into the application layers and it's here at this multifaceted layer that the potential cause for issues is apparent"

Information gathered from Wanstor's helpdesk system shows that on average 96%¹ of faults are caused by software-related issues. Because of this, Wanstor have developed a more sophisticated monitoring capability (STLM) that not only reports on the SNMP information but also recognises the operating system and applications e.g. Windows Server, exchange etc., and then compares the current configuration and performance against a preconfigured "application management pack".

Find out more about Application Management Packs »

^{1 - Statistics taken across all Wanstor customers from Jan-May 2009}