Creating an efficient, management presentable corporate dashboard

With distributed applications, SCOM has so much potential to provide valuable overview dashboards.  The two main options are, out of the box, pretty bad.

1.  SLD - extremely limited

2. Visio - complicated to setup, slow, requires a lot of work in sharepoint to trim the excess sharepoint junk out of the way, terrible looking default dashboards (when you export a visio diagram, by default you get a diagram 4 miles wide among other problems), and tweaking this initial terrible view is extremely time consuming for a single dashboard.  We're planning on around 20 dashboards for critical application ecosystems.

Is there an alternative to these?  I like the IDEA behind coretech http://www.coretech.dk/products/dashboard-scom/ and Squared-UP http://www.squaredup.com/content/dashboards but the online demos for these are both very limited- seems like these are one-man startups that have a great idea, but not a lot of depth.

SAVision also has some options- but it looks like you have to have your executives load a full scom console.  A simple, quick loading web dashboard without a lot of extra components is the goal.

I've seen some nice work from Catapult Systems and In-Front consulting, but those seem to be custom engagements.  Is this the only way to go for what I'm looking for?

Thanks for any input on how to make SCOM a reasonable dashboard choice where I'm not going to spend days at a time getting it to look decent and something quick and attractive I wouldn't be embarrassed to show to a executive.

January 17th, 2014 9:33am

I was able to preview some dashboards from Jonathan Almquist (Scomskills.com) maybe you should reach out to him for more information or a demo?
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January 17th, 2014 11:54am

Hi,

How about System Center 2012 & SolarWinds Integration? It is not free, but you could download free trial fully functional for 30 days.

SolarWinds System Center Extension Pack

http://www.solarwinds.com/lp/system-center-extension-pack.aspx 

Note: Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information. 

January 21st, 2014 4:41am

Thx for the link to Solar Winds, Xin....About how much does it cost?

JB


  • Edited by bradje 57 minutes ago
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January 21st, 2014 5:37am

Thx for the link to Solar Winds, Xin....About how much does it cost?

JB


  • Edited by bradje Tuesday, January 21, 2014 10:35 AM
January 21st, 2014 1:35pm

Thx for the link to Solar Winds, Xin....About how much does it cost?

JB


  • Edited by bradje Tuesday, January 21, 2014 10:35 AM
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January 21st, 2014 1:35pm

Thx for the link to Solar Winds, Xin....About how much does it cost?

JB


  • Edited by bradje Tuesday, January 21, 2014 10:35 AM
January 21st, 2014 1:35pm

Hi,

I recommend you contact  the Solar Winds sales to get more detail.

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January 27th, 2014 1:43am

Hi - I work for Coretech and will be happy to answer any questions you might have for the Coretech Dashboard for SCOM. Feel free to write me at lajREMOVE@coretech.dk

Br

Lars

January 27th, 2014 3:37am

I think creating a corporate dashboard is not at all an easy task. Before actually getting into such a business one need to know all its good bad aspects in order to pertain a good and accessible dashboard. The idea really seems pretty good and to attain all the various significant aspects about this I will recommend to go through the appropriate source of information. 
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January 27th, 2014 3:53am

Hi, probably a bit late to the game here in terms of response but I completely relate to your frustrations! The presentation layer for tech and non-tech stakeholders to view their services and data has been, IMHO, one of the biggest flaws in SCOM to date. That being said, with SCOM 2012 R2 and subsequent UR's there has obviously been real focus in beggining to improve the situation via enhanced dashboards and....drumroll...Tiles!! So simple yet so effective and easy to set up. I've now been able to quickly develop a standard dashboard model, with different flavours depending on audience, detailing at-a-glance data/health views and a consistent look and feel, then roll 'em out across the various support teams and business owners.

Until now presentation has been the biggest barrier to getting other stakeholders to adopt the tool so kudos to MS, should've done it years ago!!

If it's still an issue for you try this excellent blog for some cool examples...

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/wei_out_there_with_system_center/

Cheers


  • Edited by ModalMan 6 hours 4 minutes ago
February 5th, 2015 12:29am

Hi, probably a bit late to the game here in terms of response but I completely relate to your frustrations! The presentation layer for tech and non-tech stakeholders to view their services and data has been, IMHO, one of the biggest flaws in SCOM to date. That being said, with SCOM 2012 R2 and subsequent UR's there has obviously been real focus in beggining to improve the situation via enhanced dashboards and....drumroll...Tiles!! So simple yet so effective and easy to set up. I've now been able to quickly develop a standard dashboard model, with different flavours depending on audience, detailing at-a-glance data/health views and a consistent look and feel, then roll 'em out across the various support teams and business owners.

Until now presentation has been the biggest barrier to getting other stakeholders to adopt the tool so kudos to MS, should've done it years ago!!

If it's still an issue for you try this excellent blog for some cool examples...

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/wei_out_there_with_system_center/

Cheers


  • Edited by ModalMan Thursday, February 05, 2015 5:28 AM
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February 5th, 2015 8:26am

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