DASH to Success!

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Dashboard Application Service Hub (DASH) is a fascinating advancement we have for our Cloud & Smarter Infrastructure platform. Management and operational users are in dire need of understanding the health and current state of their environment.

Since out-of-the-box dashboards never fully provide everything an organization requires, implementing customization is a priority. Users need to be able to create their dashboards on the fly for pertinent information. To have the capability to pull in data from various sources and then to be able to visualize that data is critical to success.

Often management requests visibility into a specific environment, application, or project. These environments are often complex and comprised of numerous components. Whether it is the number of event tickets, server KPI's, network information, service level agreements, and much more. DASH allows users to pull all this data from numerous sources and provide this information in a slick interface.

DASH has simple out-of-the-box integration with a great majority of all our Cloud & Smarter Infrastructure portfolio. The main driver behind the development of DASH and the integration with our C&SI solutions was simplicity. We wanted to make it as simple as possible for our users to integrate. For example, if your organization uses IBM Tivoli Monitoring or SmartCloud Application Performance Management; setting up the integration and creating a custom Dashboard within DASH could be done in a matter of minutes!

Take a look at this YouTube instructional video on how to create a connection from ITM to DASH. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3V7pZ1NfV8

Getting set up and time to value is extremely simple and quick. It is a great way to get more out of your current C&SI investment.

What one of my clients really love about DASH is the ability to create a Dashboard that can display all the KPI's of their Operating Systems. The dashboard updates contextually on anything they click on. For example, if they click on the system name - all the charts KPI's update to that system. If they click on any KPI, it will allow for drill down into that KPI for additional details.

The key differentiator here for my customer is that they can not only view by a specific operating system such as Windows, Linux, or AIX. With DASH they were able to mash up all the operating systems and software components that make up an environment. They have the capability to see all the information they need on a single screen. No need to choose Windows OS to look at only Windows Metrics. From a single dashboard, they are able to see Windows, Linux, and Unix details, middleware, and database information that updates dynamically based on the server clicked. DASH provides a great platform to maintain operational stability and help identify problems.

Another key advantage that DASH provides our clients is mobile support. Any dashboard that is created within DASH can be enabled for mobile support by simply clicking a checkbox. Then the dashboard would be view-friendly on your iOS, Android, or other mobile device.

I have mainly been discussing data feed and integration with IBM Cloud & Smarter Infrastructure solutions - a pivotal item to mention is our integration to non-IBM data sources. We can integrate and pull metrics from pretty much anything that will send us data. We can connect to other data sources via web service (SOAP, REST), databases (JDBC, ODBC), flat files, XML, URL, and many more. The possibilities are endless on where we can pull data from and a functionality that my clients love about the DASH solution.In my upcoming blogs I will cover this topic more in detail.

To get us started, here is a sample dashboard that includes Linux systems that updates dynamically based on the system chosen:

Here is one where we can mash-up the data to not only be Linux, but with Windows as well. Whether we click on Windows System or a Linux Systems, the charts will update dynamically.

Stay tuned for my future blogs which will cover other integrations into DASH (Omnibus, TBSM, etc)!