I’m sure I’m not alone. Rarely does a week go by that I don’t hear a horror story. I’m not talking about fiction and sensationalized thrillers — rather, real situations that start out as fun and games, sizzle and excitement, and then, before you know it, they turn ugly.
You see, as a sales representative, I have the opportunity to talk with a lot of customers. People on the front lines that frequently share their horror stories — not of vampires or ghosts, but of experiences with the Big 4 monitoring vendors (CA, IBM, HP, BMC). Strangely, they often sound like storylines from a TV soap opera, “Days of our Data Center Lives,” which I think should be a real thing.
While in each conversation some small details may vary, the bigger story remains the same: The main character makes a first impression of being very attractive with lots of bells and whistles, backed by a well-known (brand) name. You always thought it was out of your league and that you could never afford it. Then when they offered you a “deal you couldn't refuse,” you took your relationship to the next level, put a ring on it (props to Beyoncé), and signed a long-term contract. The two of you were going to rule IT, you were going to get a promotion — life was good.
Then the honeymoon ended.
You realized the solution you chose was needy and required so much attention and care that you had time for nothing else. Not what you signed up for. You had your first major fight, which couldn’t go unnoticed by the neighbors. You also watched as your partner became lazy with you, while showing interest in new, expensive activities that completely distracted them from their original commitments to you.
You paused and recognized there was trouble but were prepared to honor your commitment — stick together and do anything you could to make it work. The months went by and the challenges continued.
- Other people were starting to notice the disconnect and ask questions about why there were so many fire drills.
- They called in “support” to try to keep up with demands one at a time, but that only lead to more breakdowns.
- You were blamed by your partner and told your expectations were too high.
- Then you were told to “invest more” to experience true happiness.
Despite becoming more and more strapped for cash, you tried anything you could to keep the relationship going. You were going to see this through and not let anyone see that you were in a failing relationship. But the problems didn’t go away. Your partner made big promises about what they would do with your new converged infrastructure and cloud applications that sounded too good to be true, and they were. Your partner promised to take care of your entire stack without bogging down the rest of your life, but that didn’t happen. You hit a breaking point, and now you’re simply (finally) stuck wondering, “How the heck do I get out of this bad relationship?”
You are a victim of what I like to call the “Big 4 Syndrome” — a technology relationship that appears to have it all but ends up being a slow, painful, downward spiral that sucks the life out of you. You went all in, full of optimism, but ultimately it drained your bank account, took years off of your life, and gave very little in return. You're just another notch on its belt.
But you are not alone. This is the breaking point so many of our current customers reached before finding Zenoss — the solution you can proudly introduce to your friends and take home to your parents. Zenoss is a committed partner that believes in a unified, holistic, family-style approach to managing and monitoring your infrastructure . We accept that you might have some baggage from past relationships but embrace the opportunity to move forward, innovate and support your individual IT goals.
Zenoss understands that people, environments and technology change, and that technology providers need to remain nimble, flexible and keep accomplishing bigger and better things so your relationship doesn't sour.
So, if you've hit a wall (hopefully not with your head), or are beginning to lose faith in your current solution, Zenoss would love to have the opportunity to connect. Who knows, we might just hit it off?
