In Zenoss Newsletter - April 2009 we asked the Zenoss users to share their thoughts on why they use Zenoss. We got tons of testimonials all very flattering and very much appreciated. We will be sharing all of these on our website but here are the two winners from the contest. First, John Burkhart was randomly chosen from all the winners citing Zenoss flexibility as a key advantage of Zenoss. Then the editor’s pick went to Mike Loven of Coleman technologies, Mike’s cheeky overview of why he loves Zenoss was just too good to pass up, it’s an awesome read not to be missed. (Each winner will receive a brand new Dell Mini Netbook)

If you have a testimonial you would like to share please send them to community@zenoss.com maybe we will make you Internet famous or if its a really good one you could get a surprise Zenoss care package in the mail.

Name:   John B.
Country:  USA

Why do you use Zenoss to monitor your network?

I use Zenoss because it is the most flexible monitoring tool I’ve used.  I do a lot of specialized monitoring in the area of enterprise security for Fortune 500 and DoD and find this tool fills a lot of gaps. I am highly interested in seeing Zenoss obtain excellent market exposure.

What are Zenoss best features?

Threshold monitoring, support for so many data collection methods, and its open framework that allows me to integrate with my ArcSight ESM installations.

What other network monitoring solutions have you used in the past?

HP Insight Manager, IBM Tivoli Monitoring, IBM Netcool, Nagios, OpenNMS, Big Brother, Cacti

Why do you use Zenoss to monitor your network?

As a Managed Services Provider, I could say that we use Zenoss because it’s a great Open Source product that allows us to tailor our monitoring policies to individual customers or even individual devices. I could go on all day about how Zenoss’ support team is second-to-none when it comes to digging in and assisting us when we need their added expertise. I could babble on about how the active Zenoss Community allows for unmatched collaboration and creativity. I could do all those things, and much more. But if I did, I’d be glossing over all of the really cool features of Zenoss. For example, merely navigating to the Zenoss login screen will silently run an antivirus scan on your computer. Now if my mother calls me for tech support, the first think I do is have her log in to my Zenoss instance. 9/10 times this fixes whatever problem she has*. Also, Zenoss inspires trust. A few months ago, I was traveling on a business trip and I made a shocking discovery. Whenever I was wearing my Zenoss ball cap, the airport security guards just waved me through…. I didn’t even have to take off my shoes. It really says something about a product when the TSA endorses it so heavily*. And finally, did you know that Zenoss cures Swine Flu? It’s true. I had Swine Flu last week when I was on vacation, but about an hour after I got back (when I started using Zenoss again), it cleared right up…* I could go on and on about more of the cool features that Zenoss offers, but frankly, my boss just gave me the day off because I wore my Zenoss ball cap, so I’m going to go catch a movie. *Features reflect Zenoss Enterprise only…. your mileage may vary.

What are Zenoss best features?

I think Zenoss’ best feature is it’s army of tiny Zebras. A little known fact is that if you sign up for Zenoss Enterprise, you have access to the “ZenZebra zenpack”. This zenpack gives you control over this tiny horde and commands them to do your bidding. I’m partial to having them mow my lawn on the weekend. That gives me more time to write event transforms!

What other network monitoring solutions have you used in the past?

Nagios