CA Technologies Gives Away Nimsoft Monitor For Free

US software juggernaut CA Technologies has announced that from today, it will be giving away a version of its Nimsoft Monitor for free – with its use limited to 30 devices.

The CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap can be installed in just an hour to give administrators enterprise-class visibility into the health of the diverse IT resources.

For comparison, the commercial licence for the fully-featured Nimsoft Monitor for 30 devices would set the company back as much as $30,000.

The free offer is perfect for SMBs and start-ups, with CA hoping that successful businesses will upgrade to a paid version as they grow.

Snap decision

Nimsoft was an independent software vendor that offered IT monitoring and service desk products. It was acquired by CA in 2010, and since October 2012 its products were integrated into that business. The Nimsoft brand is still widely used by its new owner.

Just like the paid version, Nimsoft Monitor Snap provides performance and availability monitoring capabilities for network resources, physical and virtual servers, storage, databases and other IT building blocks, all in a single product. It features a set of dashboards, alarms and guided workflows to help resolve issues quickly, along with ‘tips and tricks’ to educate the first-time user.

The software will remain free indefinitely, as long as it is used to monitor no more than 30 devices.

Besides “emerging enterprises” whose IT departments often have to run on a shoestring budget, the offer is also aimed at larger companies, which can now try Nimsoft Monitor without any risk, and even without signing up for a trial.

“Until today, under-resourced customers faced an unacceptable choice between non-integrated ‘point’ monitoring tools, technically challenging open-source code, and conventional enterprise-class technology that cost too much and took too long to implement,” said John Smith, GM of Infrastructure Management at CA Technologies. “With CA Nimsoft Monitor Snap, these customers finally have a solution that genuinely meets their specific needs.”

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