GroundWork Open Source, Inc., Launches MonitoringForge.org, a Unified Hub for Open-Source Monitoring Developers and IT Administrators

GroundWork Open Source, Inc. has launched MonitoringForge.org, a unified hub for all open-source projects that relate to IT monitoring.

 

The site was inspired by IT administrators who search multiple discussion boards or project-developer sites looking for answers, said Tara Spalding, vice president of Marketing for GWOS, which provides commercial open-source network and systems-management software.

 

As such, MonitoringForge has been designed to appeal to IT administrators who want to compare and understand the differences between various open-source monitoring tools and plug-ins available today, thereby facilitating the selection of open-source monitoring software over proprietary offerings. In addition, MonitoringForge provides a unified, professional project and plug-in listing for all open source solutions that involve monitoring. The web platform provides the project developer control of how his material is presented and managed.

 

To date, GWOS said MonitoringForge is the first Web site to fulfill a real need for an open source monitoring hub connecting tools with users and advice. All projects are welcome on MonitoringForge, said Spalding, who also noted that the more participation there is the better understanding users will have of what open source monitoring can do.

 

MonitoringForge can be configured by open source projects or plug-ins that have no community Web sites to run their project elements like download-package management that supports a variety of iterations, and code submission that aids with multi-developer practice as well as open source licensing management.

 

Other project elements that can be run on MonitoringForge are project review and rankings by users sharing firsthand experiences, Q&As, roadmap and bug tracking connecting user feedback directly to the developers and screenshot galleries to preview the application. In addition, MonitoringForge also facilitates project based security so the project admin can choose if the project is publicly available or private.

 

MonitoringForge becomes a “pass-through” traffic aggregator for mature, open source projects that have existing community sites, GWOS said. This “pass-through” feature will send users to a project’s originating site and also reduce developer maintenance of multiple sites and lower the confusion for users on the latest activity.