{ "edition": "2026-10-03", "years": [ 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 ], "ai_labels": [ [ "infra", "AIOps on monitoring data" ], [ "stack", "AI platform stack" ], [ "ops", "AI-assisted operations" ], [ "agents", "Agent openness" ] ], "index_weights": { "cap": 35, "cred": 20, "safety": 20, "ai": 10, "integ": 10, "mom": 5 }, "domains": [ { "key": "infra", "label": "Server, virtualization and storage", "weight": 12 }, { "key": "network", "label": "Network monitoring", "weight": 12 }, { "key": "apps", "label": "Application and service monitoring", "weight": 10 }, { "key": "collect", "label": "Data collection and scale", "weight": 12 }, { "key": "alerting", "label": "Alerting and event management", "weight": 12 }, { "key": "visual", "label": "Visualisation and reporting", "weight": 8 }, { "key": "logs", "label": "Logs and traces", "weight": 8 }, { "key": "automation", "label": "Automation and remediation", "weight": 8 }, { "key": "security", "label": "Security and compliance", "weight": 8 }, { "key": "platforms", "label": "New-platform support (VMware exit)", "weight": 10 } ], "platforms": [ { "key": "solarwinds", "name": "SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted (formerly Orion Platform / Hybrid Cloud Observability)", "short": "SolarWinds", "kind": "product", "group": "leader", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Broad incumbent, private-equity owned", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 23, "C": 31, "M": 15, "U": 0, "P": 31 }, "idx": 0.33, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "network": { "2016": 4.5, "2017": 4.5, "2018": 4.5, "2019": 5, "2020": 5, "2021": 5, "2022": 5, "2023": 5, "2024": 5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "apps": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "collect": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4.5 }, "visual": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "logs": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "automation": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4.5 }, "security": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 4, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4.5, "Two or three platform releases a year with dated release notes, 2023.1 to 2026.4" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3.5, "Public release notes and deprecation notices, THWACK roadmap threads; no written public roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "14 of 14 tracked 2023-2026 items GA within 12 months; 9 within three months" ], [ "Velocity", 4, "Several capabilities per release, e.g. Proxmox, HA repair, maintenance windows, SW1 in 2025-2026" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3, "Renames in 2022 and 2024; Network Atlas deprecated; new features withheld from perpetual licences" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 3.5, "2022 move to node subscriptions; 2024 perpetual maintenance up 10 to 25 percent to push migration" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3.5, "New sales subscription only, tiered bundles, list prices quote-gated" ], [ "Channel and access", 1.5, "Free 30-day trial, public documentation, open Registered partner tier" ], [ "Owner stability", 4, "Private-equity take-private by Turn/River in 2025-04; CEO succession announced 2026-08" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3.5, "Proxmox, SW1 and map parity features only on subscription; perpetual maintenance price rises" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 4, "Proprietary SQL Server schema with rollup tables; templates in proprietary XML with SolarWinds macros" ], [ "Export path", 3, "SWIS REST queries and CSV/Excel reports; no bulk history export or rule conversion tools" ], [ "Stack coupling", 4, "Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server mandatory; own agent; agentless SNMP, WMI, SSH available" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any x86 hardware or VM; fully air-gapped operation with offline licensing" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2.5, "SWQL and Orion tooling are proprietary, but the skills pool is large" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 4, "Transform Partner Program since 2022-10, four tiers, about 90 percent of enterprise revenue via channel" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2, "Single tenant per instance; account limitations and EOC rollup only, no MSP portal or billing" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "SWIS REST API with Python and PowerShell SDKs; Terraform only for SaaS; Ansible collection is community" ], [ "Skills and certification", 4.5, "SolarWinds Certified Professional tracks for NPM, SAM, NCM and Self-Hosted; THWACK community of 190,000" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "SolarWinds is turning its Orion estate into a subscription self-hosted observability suite with an AI agent and incident response on top. The record shows the broadest network and server coverage in the field, steady releases and kept promises, with Proxmox added in 2025 and SW1 GA in 2026. Buyers trade that breadth for a Windows and SQL Server stack, single-tenant design, subscription pressure and a new private-equity owner.", "report": "reports/01-solarwinds.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "ops": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "agents": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "2025.4 anomaly-based interface alerts; 2026.4 SW1 root-cause diagnosis GA", "stack": "2026.4: SW1 GA in the self-hosted product; local model gateway still preview since 2025-05", "ops": "2026.4: SW1 GA with log troubleshooting, AI dashboards and config assist; recommends, does not act", "agents": "SWIS REST API covering inventory, alerts and metrics; only a community MCP server exists" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 3 announced, 2 GA, 1 preview (local model gateway), 0 pending, 0 dropped. Anomaly detection and SW1 summarise and recommend; SW1 reached GA in self-hosted only in 2026.4." }, { "key": "manageengine", "name": "ManageEngine OpManager Nexus (formerly OpManager Plus) with Applications Manager, NetFlow Analyzer, NCM and OpManager MSP", "short": "ManageEngine", "kind": "product", "group": "leader", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Broad suite, steady builds", "grade": "B", "driver": "V", "mix": { "V": 36, "C": 36, "M": 14, "U": 7, "P": 7 }, "idx": 0.42, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "network": { "2016": 4.5, "2017": 4.5, "2018": 4.5, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 5, "2023": 5, "2024": 5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "apps": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "collect": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "alerting": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "visual": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "logs": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "automation": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "security": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4.5, "Service-pack builds every one to three months with a dated public readme" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3.5, "Public build readme and lifecycle table, PitStop forum roadmap notes; no written public roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 5, "33 of 33 tracked 2023-2026 items GA, all within about five months and inside the stated quarter" ], [ "Velocity", 4, "Several capabilities per build, e.g. Proxmox, remote collector, SD-WAN and Jira in 12.8.634" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3.5, "Published end-of-support table, roughly two years per series; 32-bit and IE support ended" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2, "Plus renamed Nexus in 2025-10; SAM bundle counting formula changed 2026-01" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 1, "Perpetual or subscription, from 25 devices, three editions plus suite and MSP" ], [ "Channel and access", 1, "Public store prices, public docs and builds, open four-tier partner programme" ], [ "Owner stability", 0.5, "Zoho, privately held by founders, no outside investors" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2, "Perpetual maintenance at 20 percent a year; series reach end of support after about two years" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 3, "Proprietary tables on PostgreSQL or SQL Server; XML device templates" ], [ "Export path", 2.5, "CSV, XLS and PDF reports, REST API, database dump tools; no import path to other tools" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2, "Choice of PostgreSQL, SQL Server or KingbaseES; mostly agentless SNMP, WMI, SSH" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0, "Any hardware, local licence file, fully air-gapped" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2, "Product-specific skills; REST API and Ansible are standard" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 4, "Open four-tier partner programme with over 4,000 partners in 190 countries" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 4.5, "OpManager MSP: probe-central tenants with isolated data, branding, SLAs and billing exports" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3.5, "REST API v2 and native Ansible since 2025-01; no official Terraform provider" ], [ "Skills and certification", 3, "MECP proctored certifications for OpManager and Applications Manager" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "ManageEngine is folding OpManager and its sister modules into one Nexus suite with local and cloud LLM features on top. The record is unusually steady: monthly builds, 33 of 33 promises shipped, and Proxmox, Ansible and an MSP edition already in place. The trade-off is a proprietary data model and product-specific skills, against low prices, perpetual licences and a stable private owner.", "report": "reports/02-manageengine.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 2.5 }, "ops": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3 }, "agents": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 3 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "Build 12.8.634 anomaly dashboard; 12.8.709 native NVIDIA GPU monitoring and forecast alerts", "stack": "Build 12.8.667 OpenAI integration and 2026-06 local Ollama models for root-cause text", "ops": "Build 12.8.667: GA LLM alarm explanation and root-cause analysis; assistant does not act", "agents": "MCP server released 2026-07 as a Nexus preview; the AI evidence reports no official MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do (AI evidence): 2 announced, 1 GA (GPU monitoring), 1 preview (Zia assistant), 0 pending, 0 dropped; the release record adds OpenAI, Ollama and MCP items, all shipped. The AI explains alarms and groups alerts; it does not act." }, { "key": "zabbix", "name": "Zabbix (server, proxy, Agent 1 and Agent 2, web frontend)", "short": "Zabbix", "kind": "product", "group": "leader", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Open-source workhorse, public roadmap", "grade": "A", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 23, "C": 46, "M": 15, "U": 0, "P": 15 }, "idx": 0.27, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "network": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "collect": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "visual": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "logs": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "automation": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 4.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 5, "LTS every 18 to 24 months and point releases every six months, per published policy" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 5, "Written public roadmap to 9.0 with ZBXNEXT issues in an open tracker" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "15 of 17 items due by now shipped on time; NetFlow and topology slipped to 8.2" ], [ "Velocity", 4.5, "Several substantive features per release, e.g. proxy groups, browser checks, MFA in 7.0" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 4.5, "Published LTS policy with long support and in-place upgrades; Oracle backend deprecated" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 1.5, "Licence moved from GPLv2 to AGPLv3 with 7.0 in 2024; no feature gating" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 0.5, "Software free; support optional, per server and proxy, five tiers" ], [ "Channel and access", 0, "Open downloads, docs, roadmap and partner programme" ], [ "Owner stability", 0.5, "Founder-owned for 20 years; small acquisition of IZI-IT in 2025" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 0.5, "Free updates and LTS; support prices quote-based" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 0.5, "Documented SQL schema; templates and config in public JSON, YAML and XML" ], [ "Export path", 1, "Full API including history.get, streaming connectors; no import tools into other products" ], [ "Stack coupling", 1, "PostgreSQL, TimescaleDB or MySQL; own open agents plus SNMP, IPMI, JMX, Prometheus intake" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0, "Packages, containers and appliances on any hardware; air-gapped capable" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 1.5, "Zabbix trigger and template skills are product-specific but widespread" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 4.5, "Open partner programme from Certified to Global tier, with regional subsidiaries" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2.5, "Host groups, user roles and per-tenant proxies; no MSP portal or billing" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 4, "Full JSON-RPC API; community.zabbix Ansible collection with 16.5M downloads; community Terraform provider" ], [ "Skills and certification", 4.5, "ZCU, ZCS, ZCP and ZCE certifications plus Zabbix Academy since 2025" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Zabbix is extending a fully open-source monitoring core toward tracing, event processing and AI agent access in 8.0, with flow and topology to follow in 2027. Its record is the most transparent here: a public roadmap, regular LTS releases, strong scale and HA, and few slips. The gap a buyer must fill is network depth, since flow analysis, configuration backup and automatic topology still need other tools.", "report": "reports/03-zabbix.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0.5, "2017": 0.5, "2018": 0.5, "2019": 0.5, "2020": 0.5, "2021": 1, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "ops": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "agents": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 3 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "7.0: Agent 2 plugins for NVIDIA DCGM and AMD ROCm GPU metrics", "stack": "7.0: webhook integrations sending alerts to OpenAI, Azure OpenAI or local Ollama", "ops": "7.0: LLM-written alert summaries delivered by webhook; no in-product assistant", "agents": "8.0 RC1: official MCP server, GA due October 2026" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 announced, 2 GA (GPU plugins, LLM webhooks), 0 preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped; the official MCP server is in 8.0 RC1. The AI is statistical trigger functions plus LLM summaries by webhook." }, { "key": "prtg", "name": "Paessler PRTG Network Monitor and PRTG Enterprise Monitor", "short": "PRTG", "kind": "product", "group": "leader", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Sensor-priced mid-market favourite", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 14, "C": 36, "M": 14, "U": 0, "P": 36 }, "idx": 0.22, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "network": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "apps": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "collect": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "alerting": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "visual": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "logs": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "automation": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "security": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 3.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4.5, "Three or four dated stable releases a year plus a preview channel" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 4, "Written public roadmap by phase (discovery, planning, development); no open issue tracker" ], [ "Say-do", 4, "18 of 26 items shipped, 2 partial, 6 pending; about 18 of 20 due items delivered, API v2 took up to 24 months" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "Mostly sensor additions and v2 rewrites; bigger steps came through acquisitions" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "Perpetual licences and XL1 ended 2024; Python Script Advanced sensor removed 2025" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 4.5, "Perpetual licences and renewals ended 2024-07; XL1 unlimited licence retired" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3, "Subscription only, one licence per core server; small tiers and 100-sensor freeware remain" ], [ "Channel and access", 1, "Public prices, freeware, open downloads and manuals, three-tier partner programme" ], [ "Owner stability", 4, "Turn/River majority since 2024-05, also owns SolarWinds; new CEO 2025-09" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3.5, "No perpetual maintenance path left; staying supported means annual subscription" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 4.5, "Proprietary .dat and .raw history files; configuration in one encrypted XML file tied to the host" ], [ "Export path", 3, "History via API as CSV, JSON, XML and Data Exporter to SQL; config not importable elsewhere" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3.5, "Windows-only core with its own store and probe protocol; agentless SNMP, WMI, SSH collection" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any Windows server, offline licence activation, fully air-gapped" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2, "Easy to learn but PRTG-specific; PowerShell community tooling" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 4, "Silver, Gold and Platinum partner tiers with portal, deal registration and NFR licences" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3, "MSP edition with per-client probes, group permissions, white-label reports, monthly billing; no hard tenant isolation" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "API v1 and OpenAPI-based API v2 (GA 2025-11); PrtgAPI, Ansible and Terraform only community" ], [ "Skills and certification", 3, "Paessler Certified Monitoring Expert and Sales Professional exams" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Paessler is modernising PRTG around v2 sensors, cross-platform probes and acquired topology and configuration tools, while extending into OT. The record shows steady quarterly releases and a public roadmap, but Proxmox, topology and API v2 arrived late and SSO is still in discovery. Buyers get simple sensor pricing and air-gapped operation, against a Windows-only core, proprietary data files, an end to perpetual licences and a private-equity owner.", "report": "reports/04-prtg.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0.5, "2019": 0.5, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 1 }, "ops": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "agents": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "24.2/24.3: Anomaly Detection sensor GA and native NVIDIA GPU sensor", "stack": "26.2: AI documentation assistant, help content only", "ops": "24.2: Anomaly Detection sensor GA; alerts only, no summaries or actions", "agents": "25.4: API v2 with OpenAPI GA; no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 announced, 2 GA (anomaly sensor, GPU sensor), 0 preview, 0 dropped; the vendor roadmap adds an AI documentation assistant (shipped), AI Incidents root cause (partial) and an AI sensor builder (pending). Today the AI only flags anomalies." }, { "key": "checkmk", "name": "Checkmk (Community, Pro, Ultimate; formerly Raw, Enterprise, Cloud, MSP)", "short": "Checkmk", "kind": "product", "group": "challenger", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Open-core platform, steady shipper", "grade": "A", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 21, "C": 36, "M": 29, "U": 14, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.24, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "network": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "collect": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "alerting": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "visual": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "logs": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "automation": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "platforms": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4.5, "Major release every 12 to 14 months since 2.0, patch releases between, 24-month maintenance policy" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 4.5, "Live public roadmap page, 16,000+ numbered werks, public git repository" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "21 of 26 items GA, all due items shipped, 20 with no lag; 5 pending for 3.0" ], [ "Velocity", 4.5, "Several substantive features per major: synthetic monitoring, OTel, Relay, topology, MCP" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3.5, "24-month maintenance and in-place site updates; Web-API removed in 2.2; editions renamed in 2026" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 1.5, "Editions renamed in 2026-03 and MSP turned into an add-on; host-based metric unchanged since 2022" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 1.5, "Free Community edition; paid tiers start at 100 hosts, subscription only" ], [ "Channel and access", 0.5, "Public price list, open downloads, Silver partner tier open to any reseller" ], [ "Owner stability", 2.5, "PSG Equity growth investment in 2025; founder-era management stays" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 1.5, "24-month maintenance per major; synthetic monitoring is a paid add-on" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1.5, "RRD metrics, plain-text agent sections, Python-dict configuration in git; CMC core proprietary in paid editions" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "omd backup tar archives, REST configuration export, rrdtool dumps; no import tools for other products" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2, "Own agent with an open text format plus SNMP, Prometheus and OTLP intake; RRD storage only, export to InfluxDB" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0, "Any x86_64 or ARM64 Linux or appliance; fully air-gapped" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2, "Rule-based configuration specific to Checkmk; Nagios-style plugins and open REST API" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 4.5, "Silver, Gold, Platinum and distributor tiers; certified partners deliver first-line support" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 4, "Multi-Tenancy add-on with tenant segregation, white-labelling and per-tenant SLA reports; no billing module" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 4, "Full OpenAPI REST API; official Ansible collection with 1.2M downloads; Terraform provider community only" ], [ "Skills and certification", 4, "Two five-day certified tracks (CCA, CCC) plus synthetic course; authorised training partners" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Checkmk is turning a Nagios-born monitoring core into a broader observability platform, adding synthetic tests, OpenTelemetry, a Relay for segmented networks and an MCP server. Its record is the cleanest in this group: yearly majors, a public roadmap and almost every promise shipped at the stated version, with Proxmox monitoring in place since 2021. The trade-offs are flow analysis that still leans on ntopng, no configuration backup for network devices, and a new private-equity investor whose influence is not yet visible.", "report": "reports/05-checkmk.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "ops": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2.5 }, "agents": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 4 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "2.2-2.4: NVIDIA DCGM, InfiniBand and RoCE checks, AI cluster templates; no ML correlation", "stack": "2.5: AI alert explanation GA; no bundled model, bring your own", "ops": "2.5: AI explains alerts; no conversational assistant, no actions", "agents": "2.5.0p13: official MCP server GA with native authentication and RBAC" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 announced, 2 GA with no lag, 0 preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped (incident clustering for 3.0 is on the general roadmap). The AI is statistical baselines plus LLM explanations of alerts through customer-hosted models." }, { "key": "nagios", "name": "Nagios XI (with Nagios Core)", "short": "Nagios XI", "kind": "product", "group": "legacy", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Legacy core, late modernisation", "grade": "A", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 0, "C": 71, "M": 14, "U": 0, "P": 14 }, "idx": 0.0, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "network": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "apps": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "collect": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "visual": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "logs": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "automation": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "security": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 4 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4, "Point releases every one to three months; year-based versions since 2023-12, though 2024R2 shipped in 2025-07" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3, "Full public changelog; direction only through Nagios World Conference and blogs, no written roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "26 of 27 items shipped, two slips of 2 and 4 months; 1 pending" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "Mostly one or two features per point release; 2026 added Proxmox, XCP-ng and RBAC" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3.5, "Perpetual licences with in-place upgrades; premium features tied to maintenance since 2024" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2.5, "Premium features need active maintenance from 2024; 100-node Standard list rose from 1,995 to 2,595 dollars" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 1, "Perpetual licences in node tiers from 100, free 7-node tier, public list prices" ], [ "Channel and access", 1, "Open download and free tier; resellers, integrators and distributors listed publicly" ], [ "Owner stability", 1, "Founder-owned private company since 2007; small, with key-person dependence" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2, "Premium wizards and SSO stop updating without maintenance renewal after year one" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1, "Configuration written out as plain Nagios .cfg files; RRD metrics; standard plugin output format" ], [ "Export path", 1, "backup_xi.sh full archives, REST export in JSON or CSV; .cfg files load into Icinga, Naemon, Checkmk" ], [ "Stack coupling", 1.5, "Requires Nagios Core, MySQL/MariaDB and PHP; agents are open (NCPA Apache 2.0, NRPE, SNMP, WMI)" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0, "Any x86_64 Linux or VM appliance; fully air-gapped" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 1, "Nagios skills are widespread; standard plugin API" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3.5, "Resellers, system integrators and distributors with portal and deal registration" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2.5, "Contact-group authorisation within one instance; Fusion aggregates instances; no MSP portal or billing" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3.5, "Documented REST API; Ansible modules and a nagios_xi collection; Terraform and Chef community only" ], [ "Skills and certification", 3.5, "NCP and NCA certifications (Core), large Exchange community with 4,000+ plugins" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Nagios XI is modernising a 2009-era LAMP product around the Nagios Core engine: a new UI, Smart Dashboards, SSO, custom roles and, in 2026, Proxmox and XCP-ng wizards. Point releases arrive every few months and nearly every announced item shipped, but most are incremental and machine learning is absent. Buyers get open formats, perpetual licences and easy exit, against modest scale per server and flow and log analysis sold as separate products.", "report": "reports/06-nagios.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0.5, "2018": 0.5, "2019": 0.5, "2020": 0.5, "2021": 0.5, "2022": 0.5, "2023": 0.5, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2016": 0, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "agents": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "2024R1: NVIDIA GPU wizard via NCPA; no anomaly detection or correlation", "stack": "none", "ops": "5.4: rule-based capacity forecasts; 2024R2 trend-based predictive alerts", "agents": "5.x: documented REST API with per-user keys; no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 announced, 2 GA (about 1 month late each), 0 preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped. Nagios XI has no machine learning or generative AI; forecasting is regression and trend extrapolation." }, { "key": "whatsupgold", "name": "Progress WhatsUp Gold", "short": "WhatsUp Gold", "kind": "product", "group": "midmarket", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Windows-bound network monitor", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 0, "C": 57, "M": 14, "U": 0, "P": 29 }, "idx": 0.0, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "network": { "2016": 4.5, "2017": 4.5, "2018": 4.5, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "collect": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "visual": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "logs": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "automation": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "security": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2, "2026": 2.5 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3, "One or two releases a year with dated notes, but irregular: 2023.1 in 2024-06, 2025.0 in 2026-02" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3, "Public release notes and lifecycle table; direction through community sessions and webinars" ], [ "Say-do", 3.5, "26 of 28 items shipped, none dropped; 10 took over 12 months from first mention" ], [ "Velocity", 2.5, "Mostly incremental features per release; no new platform coverage since 2022" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "MSP, Standard and Total editions, unrestricted licences and two add-ons retired 2023-2025" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 3.5, "Editions ended 2023-10 and 2024-01, unlimited licences 2024-10, standalone add-ons 2025-01" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 2, "Perpetual or subscription, small device tiers; larger sites also need SQL Server Standard licences" ], [ "Channel and access", 2, "Sold through partners with indicative prices; security bulletins on the community portal" ], [ "Owner stability", 1.5, "Progress, a listed acquirer of software lines, owner since 2019" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2.5, "Maintenance about 20-25% of list a year; customers moved off retired editions" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 3.5, "Configuration, credentials and history in proprietary SQL Server schemas; maps not exportable to open formats" ], [ "Export path", 3, "CSV/PDF reports, read-only SQL and REST access; no import tools for other products" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3.5, "Requires Windows Server, IIS and Microsoft SQL Server; collection uses standard SNMP, WMI, SSH" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any hardware, air-gapped with offline activation; Windows only" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2, "Windows administration skills; proprietary roles and Alert Center concepts" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3.5, "Progress Accelerate Silver, Gold, Platinum with deal registration and NFR licences" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2, "MSP edition ended 2023-10; device group rights and distributed sites only" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 2.5, "REST API v1 with OAuth 2.0; no official Terraform provider or Ansible collection" ], [ "Skills and certification", 3, "WhatsUp Gold Certified Professional, valid two years" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Progress is keeping WhatsUp Gold as a Windows-based network monitor for mid-size sites and adding a cloud portal, WhatsUp Gold 360, on top of on-premises servers. Its network depth (topology, flow, configuration backup, wireless) has been in place since 2016, but releases since then are incremental and 2024 brought two exploited flaws. Buyers get a mature network tool with perpetual licences, against a Windows and SQL Server lock-in, no Proxmox, Nutanix or Kubernetes monitoring, and repeated edition changes.", "report": "reports/07-whatsupgold.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "agents": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "2022.1: unsupervised anomaly detection on interface traffic, alerts only", "stack": "none", "ops": "2022.1: ML anomaly detection GA; no assistant", "agents": "2019.1: documented REST API; no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 announced, 2 GA (lags 0 and 3 months), 0 preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped. The AI is traffic anomaly detection that raises alerts; no generative AI." }, { "key": "broadcom", "name": "Broadcom DX NetOps and DX UIM", "short": "Broadcom DX", "kind": "product", "group": "legacy", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Carrier-grade suite for top accounts", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 14, "C": 29, "M": 14, "U": 14, "P": 29 }, "idx": 0.25, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "network": { "2016": 4.5, "2017": 4.5, "2018": 4.5, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "collect": { "2016": 4.5, "2017": 4.5, "2018": 4.5, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 5, "2022": 5, "2023": 5, "2024": 5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 4.5, "2017": 4.5, "2018": 4.5, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "visual": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "logs": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "automation": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3.5, "One or two NetOps releases a year and quarterly UIM cumulative updates, dated in TechDocs" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3, "Public TechDocs release notes; direction through virtual summits; support portal behind login" ], [ "Say-do", 4, "10 of 10 items shipped, 9 within 12 months; topology engine took 13 months" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "One or two substantive items per release: gNMI telemetry, topology engine, GenAI summaries" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "Release families reach end of service about two years after GA (22.2 in 2024, 23.3 in 2025); perpetual ended" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 4, "PLA usage telemetry mandated 2024; steep maintenance rises on old perpetual licences; perpetual ended" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 5, "Subscription only, multi-year PLAs, direct deals from about 100,000 dollars a year" ], [ "Channel and access", 4.5, "No public prices or trial; tier-2 resellers dropped; patches and support behind login" ], [ "Owner stability", 3.5, "Broadcom since 2018, focused on its largest accounts; same playbook applied to VMware" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 4, "Forced upgrades about every two years; rising maintenance for legacy licences" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 4.5, "Proprietary SpectroSERVER database, Vertica schemas, probe .cfg blobs, XML vendor certifications" ], [ "Export path", 3.5, "OData and REST extraction plus CSV reports; no bulk history export or migration tools" ], [ "Stack coupling", 4, "Proprietary robot agent and bus, mandatory Vertica cluster and RHEL servers; SNMP and gNMI on the network side" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 1.5, "Any x86 hardware and air-gapped, but PLA terms require usage telemetry reporting" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 4, "Scarce skills: Model Type Editor, vendor certifications, Nimsoft probe tooling" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2, "Selective Expert Advantage partners; tier-2 resale discontinued in 2022" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 4.5, "UIM built multi-tenant with white-label consoles; NetOps tenant IP domains for overlapping addresses" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "OData, Spectrum and UIM REST APIs, certified ServiceNow connector; no official Terraform or Ansible" ], [ "Skills and certification", 3, "Broadcom certified specialist exams for NetOps, UIM and DX OI; small skills pool" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Broadcom runs DX NetOps and DX UIM as a high-end suite for its largest accounts, adding streaming telemetry, a new topology engine and generative AI summaries. The capability record is the deepest in this group, from topology-based root cause to scale past 500,000 devices, and announced items shipped. The trade-offs are subscription-only deals with high minimums, proprietary storage and agents, two-year forced upgrades, and no Proxmox or XCP-ng monitoring from the owner of VMware.", "report": "reports/08-broadcom.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 2, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3 }, "ops": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "agents": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "25.4.12: probable-cause ranking and capacity forecasting; GPU, InfiniBand, RoCE telemetry", "stack": "25.4.12: GenAI root-cause summaries inside DX NetOps", "ops": "25.4.12: natural-language root-cause summaries; runbooks via Automic are rule-based", "agents": "OData and REST APIs across NetOps; 2026 agent interface is proprietary preview, no MCP" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 3 announced, 3 GA with no lag, 0 preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped; plus an agent interface in preview since 2026-06. The AI is ML alarm clustering and baselines in DX OI plus GenAI summaries; the research lists acting runbooks as roadmap." }, { "key": "ibm", "name": "IBM SevOne Network Performance Management and Netcool Operations Insight", "short": "IBM SevOne / Netcool", "kind": "product", "group": "legacy", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Carrier NOC suite, consolidating", "grade": "B", "driver": "V", "mix": { "V": 29, "C": 21, "M": 14, "U": 7, "P": 29 }, "idx": 0.45, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "network": { "2016": 4.5, "2017": 4.5, "2018": 4.5, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "collect": { "2016": 4.5, "2017": 4.5, "2018": 4.5, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 4.5, "2017": 4.5, "2018": 4.5, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 5, "2023": 5, "2024": 5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "visual": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "logs": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "automation": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "security": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3.5, "SevOne and NOI ship several releases and fix packs a year; no published rhythm" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3, "Public IBM docs and announcement letters; direction only at Think and TechXchange" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "13 of 13 promises 2023-2026 shipped; 11 within three months, 2 about four months late" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "SevOne adds containers, 5G and scale each year; NOI 1.6.x now maintenance releases" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "Watson AIOps renamed twice; NOI users pushed to Concert Operate; SevOne appliances to containers; OpenShift minimums raised without notice" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2.5, "Cloud Pak renamed 2023 and 2026; Netcool trade-up incentives 2025; three licence metrics across products" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 4, "Quote only; typical entry $50,000-100,000 a year; separate metrics per product" ], [ "Channel and access", 3, "Docs public; sold through IBM and Partner Plus partners; no public trial or prices" ], [ "Owner stability", 2.5, "IBM stable; SevOne changed owners in 2019 and 2021; portfolio consolidating into Concert" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3.5, "NOI 1.6.x in maintenance; new features only in Concert Operate on OpenShift" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 4.5, "SevOne proprietary flat-file metric store; OMNIbus ObjectServer tables and .rules probes; proprietary dashboard JSON" ], [ "Export path", 3, "REST, GraphQL, Kafka exporter and JDBC/Kafka gateways; no tool converts history or rules" ], [ "Stack coupling", 4, "Modern Netcool and Concert need OpenShift; SevOne appliances; collection is agentless SNMP, WMI, gNMI" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 2, "Runs self-hosted and air-gapped; legacy appliance images; OpenShift cluster required for new parts" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 4.5, "Netcool rules, ObjectServer SQL and Impact policies are scarce vendor-only skills" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 4, "IBM Partner Plus tiers; most ITOM revenue via integrators such as Kyndryl, Accenture, TCS" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3.5, "SevOne tenant partitions; Netcool row filters; OpenShift namespaces; no MSP billing" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "SevOne REST v2 with OpenAPI, GraphQL, Netcool OSLC REST; no official Terraform or Ansible collection" ], [ "Skills and certification", 4, "IBM certifications for OMNIbus, NOI and Cloud Pak for AIOps; SevOne specialist badge" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "IBM is folding Netcool event management and its AIOps layer into Concert Operate on OpenShift, with SevOne kept as the carrier-scale network performance tier. The record is strong on network scale, event correlation and dates: 13 of 13 tracked promises shipped since 2023, 11 within three months. The trade-off is a heavy, quote-only, OpenShift-bound stack with proprietary rules and data formats, no Proxmox support and repeated renames to follow.", "report": "reports/09-ibm.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "ops": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 5 }, "agents": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "SevOne 8.2 (2026): metric forecasting completes anomaly, correlation and root-cause set", "stack": "SevOne Data Insight 9.0 (2026): natural-language dashboards on Granite models", "ops": "Concert Operate 5.1 (2026): agentic remediation workflows GA with human approval", "agents": "Cloud Pak for AIOps REST APIs; SevOne Data Insight GraphQL; no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 tracked, 2 GA (watsonx in Cloud Pak, SevOne GPU telemetry), about 2 months lag each, 0 dropped. The AI is ML event grouping and anomaly detection in Netcool and Cloud Pak for AIOps plus a watsonx assistant that runs Ansible playbooks on approval; only a proprietary agent framework in preview (2026-05), no official MCP server." }, { "key": "scom", "name": "Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM)", "short": "SCOM", "kind": "product", "group": "legacy", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Windows estate maintenance incumbent", "grade": "A", "driver": "U", "mix": { "V": 10, "C": 10, "M": 10, "U": 40, "P": 30 }, "idx": 0.33, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "network": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "collect": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "alerting": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "visual": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "logs": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "automation": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3.5, "Long-term releases 2016, 2019, 2022, 2024 with update rollups; semi-annual channel dropped 2019; 2022 UR3 to UR4 took two years" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3, "Public what's-new pages and KB article per rollup; no public roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "14 of 15 items 2023-2026 shipped on time; SCOM Managed Instance dropped after GA" ], [ "Velocity", 2, "Rollups mostly fixes, OS and SQL support; SCOM 2025 adds TLS 1.3 and Kerberos-only authentication" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3.5, "Ten-year support per release, in-place upgrades; APM deprecated, Service Provider Foundation and UNIX agents removed" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 1, "Per-core System Center licence unchanged since 2016; only the Managed Instance PaaS came and went" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3.5, "Sold only inside System Center suites; all cores licensed, 16-core minimum per server" ], [ "Channel and access", 1.5, "Docs and rollups public; sold through Enterprise Agreements and CSP partners" ], [ "Owner stability", 2, "Microsoft stable, but strategy steers to Azure Monitor and Arc; Managed Instance retired 2026" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2, "Ten-year support windows; no paid feature removals found" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 3.5, "Management pack XML schema documented, but sealed packs are signed binaries; data in SQL Server" ], [ "Export path", 3.5, "PowerShell, REST and SQL warehouse readable; Microsoft states no tool converts packs to other products" ], [ "Stack coupling", 4.5, "Requires Windows Server, Active Directory, SQL Server and Microsoft agents; agents cannot feed OpenTelemetry" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any hardware; runs fully offline" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 4, "Pack authoring needs VSAE or Silect tools and health-model skills; dedicated certifications retired 2021" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 4.5, "Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program; large third-party pack ecosystem (SquaredUp, NiCE, OpsLogix, hardware OEMs)" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 1.5, "Single tenant per management group; scoped user roles only; Service Provider Foundation dropped in SCOM 2025" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "PowerShell module, REST API and .NET SDK; no Terraform provider; community Ansible only" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2.5, "System Center certifications retired 2021; active community (SCOMathon, Kevin Holman blog)" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Microsoft keeps SCOM as a long-supported on-premises engine for Windows estates while steering new monitoring to Azure Monitor and Arc. Since 2023 the record is servicing: rollups and protocol hardening ship on time, no new monitoring domain arrived, and the cloud Managed Instance was retired after two years. Buyers get deep Windows and Microsoft-application health models with support to 2035, at the cost of weak network and non-Microsoft hypervisor coverage and a heavy Windows, AD and SQL Server stack.", "report": "reports/10-scom.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0.5, "2026": 0.5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "agents": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "SCOM 2025: GPU workload management pack per AI evidence; no ML baselines on-premises", "stack": "none", "ops": "SCOM 2016: rule-based Tune Management Packs alert-noise analysis", "agents": "SCOM 1801: REST API; only a community MCP server (v0.1.3) since 2025" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 tracked, 1 GA (GPU management pack, on time), 1 dropped (SCOM Managed Instance, whose anomaly detection was cloud-only and is retired). On-premises SCOM has no ML, no assistant and no official MCP server." }, { "key": "sciencelogic", "name": "ScienceLogic Skylar One (formerly SL1 / EM7)", "short": "ScienceLogic", "kind": "product", "group": "challenger", "since": 2016, "archetype": "MSP-grade AIOps platform", "grade": "B", "driver": "M", "mix": { "V": 22, "C": 22, "M": 44, "U": 11, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.25, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "network": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "collect": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "visual": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "logs": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "automation": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "security": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4, "Two named releases a year from 8.x to 12.7, dates kept" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3, "Public release notes per version; direction shown at Symposium and webinars; no public roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "7 of 7 items 2023-2026 shipped with 0-1 month lag; Skylar Advisor came as preview in 12.4, GA only in 12.6" ], [ "Velocity", 4.5, "Several capabilities per release: NCM, log root cause, OpenTelemetry, Proxmox, MCP in 2022-2026" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3, "Forced moves to Oracle Linux 8 (12.1) and 9 (12.7); classic UI and Data Pull removed; three product names" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2, "No metric change documented; AI and compliance placed in the Premier tier; SL1 renamed Skylar One 2025" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 4, "Subscription only, tiered by device category; about $25,000-50,000 a year entry" ], [ "Channel and access", 3, "Docs public; prices unpublished; sold direct and through certified partners; no public trial found" ], [ "Owner stability", 3, "Private, venture and growth funded ($105M Series E led by Silver Lake Waterman, 2021); no exit announced" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3, "Forced OS upgrades; Automated RCA, Compliance and Advisor need the top tier" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 4, "Monitoring logic in proprietary PowerPacks (XML, JSON, Python); proprietary MariaDB schema" ], [ "Export path", 3.5, "Data readable via REST and GraphQL; no export or import tools for other products" ], [ "Stack coupling", 4, "Own appliance OS, database and collectors; standard SNMP, WMI, OpenTelemetry and gNMI intake" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 2, "Virtual or physical appliances on any hypervisor; air-gapped supported" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 3.5, "Dynamic Application and PowerFlow authoring skills are vendor-specific" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3.5, "Widely used by MSPs and integrators (Cisco, CDW, NTT); programme terms not documented" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 4.5, "Native multi-tenant organisations, hierarchical RBAC and automated client onboarding" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 4, "REST and GraphQL APIs, PowerFlow, Terraform and Ansible modules" ], [ "Skills and certification", 3.5, "ScienceLogic Certified Professional and Expert credentials" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "ScienceLogic is turning SL1, now Skylar One, into an AIOps platform where log-based root cause, a generative assistant and an MCP server sit on a multi-tenant monitoring core. Since 2023 it has shipped on schedule, adding config compliance, OpenTelemetry, Proxmox and MCP, but it also had an exploited zero-day on the CISA KEV list in 2024 and imposed OS upgrades. Buyers get one of the broadest feature sets in this Ledger, at the cost of appliance coupling, proprietary PowerPacks and top-tier pricing for the AI features.", "report": "reports/11-sciencelogic.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "ops": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "agents": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 4 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "12.3: Automated RCA from logs GA; NVIDIA GPU PowerPack (12.2.4)", "stack": "Skylar One 12.6: Skylar AI suite (RCA, Analytics, Advisor) GA; on-premises LLM option", "ops": "Skylar One 12.6: Advisor GA explains incidents and runs remediation on operator approval", "agents": "12.7: official MCP server GA; governance controls not documented" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 tracked, 2 GA (Automated RCA, Skylar Advisor), 0-1 month lag per the AI evidence; the release record shows Advisor as preview in 12.4 (2024-12) and GA in 12.6 (2025-10). The AI is ML anomaly detection, Zebrium log-based root cause and a generative assistant that triggers remediation on approval." }, { "key": "centreon", "name": "Centreon (Open Source, IT Edition and Business Edition)", "short": "Centreon", "kind": "product", "group": "challenger", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Sovereign open-core challenger", "grade": "B", "driver": "V", "mix": { "V": 30, "C": 20, "M": 30, "U": 0, "P": 20 }, "idx": 0.38, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "network": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "collect": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "visual": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "logs": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "automation": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 3, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4.5, "Two releases a year, April and October, since 18.10; 26.04 on schedule" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3.5, "Public what's-new pages, lifecycle policy and GitHub monorepo; roadmap shown at Summit and blog" ], [ "Say-do", 5, "7 of 7 items 2023-2026 shipped in the stated release with 0 month lag" ], [ "Velocity", 4, "Several capabilities per release: Proxmox, anomaly detection, OpenTelemetry, MCP" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3.5, "Published support windows; moved from CentOS to AlmaLinux 8, 9 and 10; in-place upgrades" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2, "Anomaly detection reserved to Business Edition in 2023; no metric change documented" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 2, "Free GPL core; IT Edition from about EUR 4,500 a year in host packs; paid editions subscription only" ], [ "Channel and access", 1, "Open download, public docs and GitHub; paid packs need a subscription" ], [ "Owner stability", 3.5, "Majority private-equity growth investment in 2024 (grade B source)" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3, "BAM, MAP and MBI stop working when the subscription ends; Plugin Pack library gated" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1.5, "Configuration in MariaDB, exportable as JSON or CLAPI files; metrics in RRD; Nagios plugin format" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "REST API v2 and CLAPI export; stream connectors; BAM trees must be rebuilt elsewhere" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2, "Own engine, broker and Gorgone, but standard Monitoring Plugins and MariaDB" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any Linux server; offline repositories for air-gapped installs" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 1.5, "Nagios-style skills, widely available" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3, "Strong with European MSPs; partner programme terms not documented" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3.5, "ACL scoping and MSP tenant isolation since 24.10; no billing portal documented" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3.5, "OpenAPI REST v2 covering all functions; Ansible playbooks; Terraform only community" ], [ "Skills and certification", 3.5, "Centreon Certified Administrator and Expert via Centreon Academy" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Centreon is building a European open-core platform, keeping the engine open source while adding Proxmox, OpenShift Virtualization, AI features and an MCP server to its paid editions. Since 2023 it has released twice a year on schedule and delivered every tracked promise in the stated release. Buyers get low lock-in and strong VMware-exit coverage, but no flow analysis, config backup or native log store, and the useful packs, maps and AI need a subscription.", "report": "reports/12-centreon.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 1, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "ops": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "agents": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 4 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "25.04: incident clustering by MAP topology; root-cause scoring", "stack": "25.10: sovereign AI assistant answers natural-language questions on configuration and alert history", "ops": "25.10: natural-language assistant GA", "agents": "26.04: official MCP server GA; governance controls not documented" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 tracked, 2 GA (anomaly detection 23.10, NVIDIA pack 24.04), 0-1 month lag, 0 dropped. The AI is ML anomaly detection in Business Edition, topology-based incident clustering and a natural-language assistant; GenAI incident summaries are still preview." }, { "key": "icinga", "name": "Icinga 2 with Icinga Web 2, Icinga DB, Director and Notifications", "short": "Icinga", "kind": "product", "group": "challenger", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Pure open-source check engine", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 0, "C": 67, "M": 22, "U": 11, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.0, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "network": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "collect": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "alerting": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "visual": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "logs": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 }, "automation": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3.5, "Majors 2.14 (2023-07), 2.15 (2025-06), 2.16 (2026-04) plus patches; a 23-month gap before 2.14" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 4, "Public GitHub repos and milestones; direction stated at yearly IcingaCON keynotes" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "7 of 7 items since 2023 shipped on stated timing; sample comes from conference promises" ], [ "Velocity", 3, "One or two substantive changes per major release" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3.5, "In-place upgrades; IDO backend superseded by Icinga DB, a migration users must plan" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 0.5, "GPLv2 throughout; no licence or pricing change recorded since 2023" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 1, "Everything free; optional support per host count, quote based" ], [ "Channel and access", 1.5, "Open downloads and docs; official package repositories bundled with paid support" ], [ "Owner stability", 1, "Privately held by NETWAYS group since 2009; no outside investors" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 1, "Free updates; support is optional and does not unlock features" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 2, "Plain-text Icinga DSL unique to Icinga; state in PostgreSQL or MySQL; standard plugin format" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "Config is text files and Director JSON baskets; metrics already in InfluxDB or Graphite" ], [ "Stack coupling", 1, "Choice of MySQL or PostgreSQL; Nagios-compatible plugins reusable in other tools" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0, "Any hardware, fully offline" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2, "DSL and Director skills are Icinga-specific; plugin skills are common" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3.5, "Certified partner network in DACH, France, UK and North America" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2.5, "Restriction filters by host group or variable; dedicated satellites; no MSP portal or billing" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 4, "REST API; official Ansible collection; Puppet module with 15M downloads; Director CLI" ], [ "Skills and certification", 3, "NETWAYS training and integrator certification; no public exam detail" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Icinga is building a modular, fully GPL monitoring stack around its check engine, with Icinga DB for scale, Director for automation and a new notification service. Its record is steady and honest: small, regular releases, every 2023-2026 promise delivered, and no exploited flaws. The trade-off is that graphs, logs, flows and network configuration all live in other tools, so buyers assemble and run several products.", "report": "reports/13-icinga.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0.5, "2017": 0.5, "2018": 0.5, "2019": 0.5, "2020": 0.5, "2021": 0.5, "2022": 0.5, "2023": 0.5, "2024": 0.5, "2025": 0.5, "2026": 0.5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "agents": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 3 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "2.5: GPU servers checked through the check_nvidia_smi plugin; no machine learning", "stack": "none", "ops": "Notifications 1.0: rule-based alert grouping and quiet-period dampening", "agents": "2.16.0, 2026-04: MCP server preview for state queries and downtimes" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 tracked, 2 delivered GA (Icinga DB, Notifications), 0 dropped; MCP preview shipped as promised. No ML in the product; a community Ollama summarizer does not count." }, { "key": "opennms", "name": "OpenNMS Horizon and Meridian", "short": "OpenNMS", "kind": "product", "group": "challenger", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Open-source network NOC platform", "grade": "B", "driver": "M", "mix": { "V": 20, "C": 10, "M": 50, "U": 10, "P": 10 }, "idx": 0.25, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "network": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "apps": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "collect": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "visual": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "logs": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "automation": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "security": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3.5, "Two or three Horizon majors a year to 2022, then 18 months between Horizon 33 (2024-02) and 34 (2025-08)" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 4, "Public GitHub, docs and issue tracker; direction through blog posts and developer conferences" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "7 of 7 items since 2023 shipped in the named release, no lag recorded" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "Several capabilities per major release, slower in 2024-2025" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 4, "Meridian LTS with 3-year support and backported fixes; Java runtime moves handled in-release" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 1.5, "Meridian repackaged into Foundation, Advanced and Enterprise node bands in 2023; AGPLv3 unchanged" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 2, "Horizon free; Meridian subscription only, quote based, enterprise entry price" ], [ "Channel and access", 2, "Open downloads and docs; Meridian repositories behind subscription; no partner programme described" ], [ "Owner stability", 3, "Owned since 2020 by NantHealth, a healthcare software company; subsidiary results not reported separately" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 1.5, "Horizon updates free; Meridian keeps 3-year support windows" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 2, "XML config files and PostgreSQL; metrics in Cassandra, ScyllaDB, TimescaleDB or RRD" ], [ "Export path", 2, "Config through ReST API; flows in OpenSearch; no import tools to other products" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2, "Java/Karaf core, PostgreSQL required; standard SNMP, flows, gNMI, OpenTelemetry; own Minion" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0, "Any hardware, fully offline" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 3, "OpenNMS XML, requisitions and Karaf skills are specialist and scarce" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2, "No partner programme described in the research" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3, "Minion locations and surveillance categories used by MSPs; no tenant portal or billing" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "ReST v1 and v2; community Ansible roles; official Helm charts from Horizon 35; no Terraform" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2, "No training or certification described in the research" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "OpenNMS is extending a network-first platform with distributed collection, flow processing and ML alarm correlation toward streaming telemetry, new hypervisors and AI agents over MCP. The record shows strong network, event and scale depth and every 2023-2026 promise delivered, but release pace slowed in 2024-2025. Buyers get deep free capability with Horizon, while specialist skills and a small parent company are the main trade-offs.", "report": "reports/14-opennms.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "ops": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "agents": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 3, "2026": 4 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "Horizon 34: ALEC 3.0 root-cause alarm clustering; DGX and DCGM GPU telemetry", "stack": "Horizon 26: ALEC ships as a built-in ML module; no natural-language or AI observability service", "ops": "Horizon 22: ML anomaly detection GA; ALEC from 2020 recommends situations; no assistant GA", "agents": "Horizon 36, 2026-05: MCP server GA exposing topology, alarms and metrics" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 tracked, 2 delivered GA (ALEC 2.0, DGX templates), 0 dropped; MCP moved from preview to GA as promised. AI is unsupervised alarm correlation and anomaly detection." }, { "key": "grafana", "name": "Grafana Labs self-hosted stack (Grafana Enterprise, Mimir, Loki, Tempo, Alloy)", "short": "Grafana Labs", "kind": "product", "group": "challenger", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Composable observability stack", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 14, "C": 43, "M": 21, "U": 7, "P": 14 }, "idx": 0.18, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "network": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "collect": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "visual": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "logs": { "2016": 0.5, "2017": 0.5, "2018": 0.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "automation": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 5, "Monthly minor releases and a yearly major at GrafanaCON, kept since 2016" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 4.5, "Public GitHub issues and code; direction at GrafanaCON and ObservabilityCON" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "9 of 9 items since 2023 shipped; public dashboards 5 months late, AI assistant 2 months late" ], [ "Velocity", 5, "Several substantive capabilities per release across six products" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3, "Legacy alerting and AngularJS removed; Grafana Agent replaced by Alloy; short support windows" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 1.5, "AGPLv3 relicensing in 2021 predates the window; since 2023 the Agent-to-Alloy repackaging only" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 2.5, "Open source free; Enterprise subscription only, quote based, from about USD 29,000 a year" ], [ "Channel and access", 1, "Open downloads, docs and trials; partner programme not described in the research" ], [ "Owner stability", 2, "Independent but venture-funded at a USD 6B valuation; growth pressure, no acquisition" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2.5, "Enterprise data source plugins stop when the licence lapses; frequent upgrades and forced Agent migration" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 2, "Dashboards in Grafana's own JSON schema; metrics in open Prometheus TSDB and Parquet formats" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "Full JSON export through the API; data readable with PromQL and LogQL APIs; Enterprise plugins stop on expiry" ], [ "Stack coupling", 0.5, "100+ data sources; OpenTelemetry and Prometheus standards; object storage of choice" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any hardware, offline; Enterprise needs air-gapped licence activation" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 1, "PromQL and Grafana skills are widespread" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2.5, "Partner programme not described in the research" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3.5, "Organizations in Grafana; per-tenant isolation in Mimir and Loki via X-Scope-OrgID; no billing portal" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 5, "Full HTTP API; official Terraform provider with 45M+ downloads, Ansible collection, Kubernetes operator" ], [ "Skills and certification", 4, "Grafana Certified Associate and Certified Operator exams" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Grafana Labs is turning a visualisation tool into a full self-hosted observability stack, with Mimir, Loki, Tempo and Alloy for collection and storage, and AI assistance and MCP on top. Its release rhythm and say-do record are the strongest of this group, though upgrades regularly remove older features. For classic infrastructure work the gaps are network management, hypervisor discovery and topology root cause, and several AI features are documented for Cloud first.", "report": "reports/15-grafana.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "ops": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "agents": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 3, "2026": 4 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "Sift automated investigations; documented for Cloud, counted half; GPU dashboards since 9.0", "stack": "12.0: AI assistant GA in Enterprise; AI cluster dashboards for LLM latency and GPU memory", "ops": "12.0: natural-language PromQL/LogQL assistant GA in Enterprise; recommends, does not act", "agents": "mcp-grafana v1.0.0 GA, 2026-07; MCP tools also in Grafana 13.0" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 3 tracked, 2 delivered GA (Sift, MCP 1.0), 1 delivered as preview (assistant in 11.0), 0 dropped. AI recommends and writes queries; it does not act." }, { "key": "netdata", "name": "Netdata Agent with self-hosted Parents", "short": "Netdata", "kind": "product", "group": "challenger", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Per-second agent with on-device ML", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 9, "C": 36, "M": 36, "U": 0, "P": 18 }, "idx": 0.11, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "network": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "collect": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "visual": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "logs": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2.5 }, "automation": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "security": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4.5, "Frequent stable releases, 1.40 to 2.12 between 2023 and 2026" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3.5, "Public GitHub issues and PRs; roadmap from briefings and blogs, not a written roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 4, "5 of 5 items since 2023 delivered, one 2 months late; MCP delivery disputed between research records" ], [ "Velocity", 4.5, "Several collectors and features per release" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3, "2.0 relicensing and dashboard change; Python collectors replaced by Go; only latest release supported" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 3.5, "Paid Cloud plans introduced 2023; NCUCL licence replaced GPLv3 with 2.0 in 2024" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 1.5, "Self-hosted agent free and unlimited; paid tiers per node per month, monthly" ], [ "Channel and access", 1.5, "Open downloads and docs; direct sales only, no partner channel" ], [ "Owner stability", 3, "Small venture-backed company; funding after 2019 not in the research; monetisation through Cloud" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2.5, "Agent updates free; RBAC, SSO, audit and support require a paid Cloud plan" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 2.5, "Proprietary dbengine files readable only through the Netdata API; plain-text config" ], [ "Export path", 1, "Streams to Prometheus Remote Write, Graphite, OpenTSDB, InfluxDB, Kafka; history via REST" ], [ "Stack coupling", 1.5, "Own agent required; scrapes Prometheus endpoints and SNMP; no external database" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 1, "Any hardware and offline; access control and SSO tied to Netdata Cloud" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 1, "Little configuration needed; standard skills" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 0.5, "No partner programme; direct sales and community support" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 1, "No multi-tenancy on-premises; spaces and rooms only in Netdata Cloud" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "REST API v1-v3, Prometheus endpoint, official Ansible role and Helm chart; no Terraform described" ], [ "Skills and certification", 0.5, "No training or certification" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Netdata is building a zero-configuration, per-second monitoring agent with machine learning on every metric, and moving management and access control into its paid Cloud. The record shows fast releases and delivered promises, plus a 2024 licence change away from GPLv3. Buyers get strong host, container and Proxmox coverage for free, but network, logs, multi-tenancy and on-premises access control are thin.", "report": "reports/16-netdata.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "ops": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "agents": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "1.39: Metric Correlations rank anomalous metrics during an incident", "stack": "2.0: Netdata Assistant summarises anomalies in plain English", "ops": "2.0: Netdata Assistant, read-only; GA per AI evidence, preview per release table", "agents": "1.19: documented REST API v1 with JSON, CSV and Prometheus formats" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 tracked, 2 delivered GA (2.0 Assistant, DCGM collector), 0 dropped, average lag 1.5 months. ML is per-metric local anomaly detection; the Assistant only explains." }, { "key": "opsview", "name": "Opsview Monitor (ITRS)", "short": "Opsview", "kind": "product", "group": "midmarket", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Rebuilt Nagios heir, PE-owned", "grade": "B", "driver": "M", "mix": { "V": 0, "C": 38, "M": 46, "U": 8, "P": 8 }, "idx": 0.0, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "network": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "collect": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "alerting": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "visual": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "logs": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "automation": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3, "One or two minor releases a year since 2019 (6.6 2023, 6.7 2024, 6.8 2025, 6.8.3 2026); no published rhythm" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3, "Public knowledge-base release notes and lifecycle matrix; direction via webinars and client briefings" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "7 of 8 tracked promises GA within 12 months; NVIDIA GPU Opspack shipped 18 months late (2025)" ], [ "Velocity", 3, "One or two substantive capabilities per release, for example Proxmox in 6.7, anomaly baselines and MCP in 6.8" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3, "Opsview 6 rewrite (2019) replaced Nagios Core; stable since, with RHEL 8 to 9 platform moves" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 1.5, "2023-05: plans cut to two subscription tiers (Cloud and Enterprise); no metric change recorded" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 4, "Subscription only, host bands from 500 hosts; no perpetual or free option" ], [ "Channel and access", 2.5, "Documentation public; prices quote-only; trial and partner programme not documented" ], [ "Owner stability", 4, "Private-equity owned: ITRS bought Opsview 2018, TA Associates majority stake 2021" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2.5, "Support and updates inside the subscription; no paid-for-formerly-free change recorded" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 3.5, "Proprietary Opspack bundles and BSM models in MySQL; metrics in InfluxDB" ], [ "Export path", 3, "REST API v2 covers configuration; BSM trees and flow settings must be re-authored elsewhere" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3.5, "Own microservices, RabbitMQ, InfluxDB and agent required; check_* plugins and SNMP/WMI reusable" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any hardware on RHEL; air-gapped install supported; SaaS optional" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2.5, "Nagios plugin skills transfer; Opspack authoring is product-specific" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2, "No partner programme described in the research; sold inside the ITRS portfolio" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3.5, "Built-in tenancies isolate users, dashboards and notifications for MSPs; no billing" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3.5, "REST API v2 with OpenAPI (2020) and official Ansible roles; no Terraform provider recorded" ], [ "Skills and certification", 1.5, "No certification programme recorded" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Opsview is a Nagios-derived monitor that ITRS rebuilt in 2019 as Go and Python microservices on InfluxDB, and it is now adding hypervisor breadth (Nutanix AHV 2021, Proxmox 2024) and AI hooks (anomaly baselines 2025, an MCP server 2026). The record shows one or two solid releases a year and promises that mostly shipped on time, with business-service views and multi-tenancy as long-standing strengths. The trade-off is a proprietary Opspack format, subscription-only buying from a private-equity owner, and evidence that rests largely on the vendor's own knowledge base.", "report": "reports/17-opsview.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0.5, "2022": 0.5, "2023": 0.5, "2024": 1, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "agents": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 3, "2026": 4 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "6.8.0 (2025): ML anomaly baselines GA; NVIDIA GPU Opspack", "stack": "none", "ops": "6.8.0 (2025): anomaly detection GA; no natural-language assistant", "agents": "6.8.3 (2026): MCP server GA exposing health and BSM states" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 announced, 2 GA (anomaly baselines on time; GPU Opspack 18 months late), 0 preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped. The AI is statistical anomaly baselining plus an MCP server; there is no LLM assistant in the product." }, { "key": "librenms", "name": "LibreNMS", "short": "LibreNMS", "kind": "product", "group": "community", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Community SNMP network monitor", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 0, "C": 60, "M": 20, "U": 20, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.0, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "network": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "apps": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "collect": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "visual": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "logs": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "automation": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "security": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4.5, "Monthly calendar-versioned releases since 21.1 (2021), latest 26.9.0 in September 2026" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 4, "Public GitHub issues, changelog and Discourse feature threads; no written roadmap document" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "5 of 5 tracked items shipped on time 2023-2025; small sample from community threads" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "Steady device-support growth plus one or two features per quarter, e.g. poller v2, trap correlation, vector maps" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3, "Rolling releases with no LTS; PHP baseline bumps (8.1 to 8.4) force OS upgrades" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Maintainer concentration", 3.5, "About five active volunteer maintainers carry core work; key-person risk" ], [ "Backer health", 4, "No company; Open Collective brings about $2,000 a year, no paid maintainers" ], [ "Licence-change risk", 1, "GPLv3 since the 2013 fork, created to stay open; no relicensing" ], [ "Abandonment signs", 0.5, "Active: monthly releases, 26.9.0 in September 2026, 450+ contributors" ], [ "Security response", 2, "GitHub security advisories issued and patched; no formal response SLA" ] ], "risk": "sustainability", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1, "MariaDB and RRDtool files; device definitions in plain text" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "mysqldump, REST API and InfluxDB or Prometheus streaming; no importers into other tools" ], [ "Stack coupling", 1, "Standard SNMP, no proprietary agent; needs PHP, MariaDB and RRDtool" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0, "Any Linux host, VM or Docker; fully offline" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 1, "LAMP, SNMP and SQL skills" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 0.5, "No partner programme, resellers or vendor" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 1.5, "Device- and group-scoped users and ISP billing module; no tenants or MSP portal" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "REST API v0 with 100+ endpoints and OpenAPI docs, official Docker images; Ansible only community" ], [ "Skills and certification", 1, "No certification; community forum of about 12,000 users" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "LibreNMS is a volunteer-run GPLv3 network monitor that keeps widening SNMP device coverage, topology maps and poller scale, and added Proxmox discovery in 2024. It releases monthly and shipped every tracked item since 2023, but has no company, about $2,000 a year in donations and no commercial support. Buyers get open formats and almost no lock-in, at the cost of thin server, application and hypervisor-API depth and reliance on a handful of maintainers.", "report": "reports/18-librenms.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0.5, "2021": 0.5, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2016": 0, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 }, "agents": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2.5 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "24.4 (2024): native GPU graphs; 24.9 400G and InfiniBand port polling", "stack": "none", "ops": "22.10 (2022): statistical latency deviation alerts; no ML or assistant", "agents": "26.9.0 (2026): MCP bridge preview listed; AI evidence calls the server community-built, so half credit" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 announced, 1 GA (GPU graphs), 1 preview (community MCP server), 0 pending, 0 dropped. No machine learning: anomaly flags are moving-average latency checks, and there is no assistant." }, { "key": "elastic", "name": "Elastic Observability (self-managed)", "short": "Elastic", "kind": "product", "group": "challenger", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Logs-first observability platform", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 13, "C": 40, "M": 40, "U": 7, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.14, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "network": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "apps": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "collect": { "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 5, "2022": 5, "2023": 5, "2024": 5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "alerting": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "visual": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "logs": { "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 5, "2023": 5, "2024": 5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "automation": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4.5, "Minor releases every few weeks and a major every two to three years (8.0 2022, 9.0 2025)" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 4, "Public release notes and GitHub repositories; direction via ElasticON and blogs, no written roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "8 of 8 tracked promises GA within 12 months 2023-2026, lags 0 to 2 months" ], [ "Velocity", 4.5, "Several observability features per minor release, e.g. ES|QL, AI Assistant, Profiling, OTel intake" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3.5, "Majors bring breaking changes and upgrade assistants; support window length not in the research" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2, "2024-08: AGPLv3 option added after the 2021 SSPL/ELv2 move; quote-only resource-unit pricing" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 2.5, "Free tier exists, but ML, SSO, ServiceNow connectors and AI Assistant need Platinum or Enterprise" ], [ "Channel and access", 1, "Open downloads and public documentation; certification open to all" ], [ "Owner stability", 1, "Independent listed company since 2018; no change of control" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2, "Subscription tiers gate key features; 2019 moved basic security to free" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 3, "Lucene indices readable only through Elasticsearch; ECS schema and Kibana saved objects are documented JSON" ], [ "Export path", 2, "Snapshot API, scroll search, Logstash outputs and OTLP export; no importers into other tools" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3.5, "Elasticsearch required as store and ES|QL for queries; accepts OTel and Prometheus data" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any hardware, VMs or Kubernetes via ECK; runs offline" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2, "ES|QL, Query DSL and Kibana skills are common in the market" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3, "Partner programme not covered by the research; large certified engineer base and official clients" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3, "Kibana Spaces, document and field security, 9.5 Fleet policy scoping; no MSP billing" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 4.5, "Full REST APIs, official Terraform provider, Ansible collection and ECK operator" ], [ "Skills and certification", 4.5, "Elastic Certified Observability Engineer and Engineer exams, hands-on and proctored" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Elastic approaches infrastructure monitoring from search and logs, and since 2023 has put its effort into ES|QL, OpenTelemetry intake, profiling and generative AI on top of an ML engine it has shipped since 2017. Its record is strong: frequent releases, every tracked promise delivered within a quarter, and a licence that moved back toward open source in 2024. The trade-off is thin network-device and hypervisor depth compared with dedicated monitors, and the features that matter most for operations sit in paid tiers on an Elasticsearch-centred stack.", "report": "reports/19-elastic.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "ops": { "2016": 0, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "agents": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "8.12 (2024): NVIDIA DCGM metrics; 9.0 (2025) LLM inference tracing", "stack": "9.0 (2025): LLM observability with token and latency tracing", "ops": "8.13 (2024): Agent Builder for diagnostic and remediation agents with operator confirmation", "agents": "9.4 (2026): release notes list MCP support; AI evidence still shows 0.x, half step" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 3 announced, 3 GA on time (AI Assistant, DCGM integration, Agent Builder), 0 preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped. ML anomaly detection has shipped since 2017; the generative assistant recommends and drafts queries but does not act alone." }, { "key": "prometheus", "name": "Prometheus (with Alertmanager)", "short": "Prometheus", "kind": "product", "group": "engine", "since": 2016, "archetype": "Cloud-native metrics engine", "grade": "A", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 18, "C": 45, "M": 9, "U": 27, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.25, "domains": { "infra": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 }, "network": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "apps": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "collect": { "2016": 3, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "alerting": { "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "visual": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "logs": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0.5, "2023": 0.5, "2024": 0.5, "2025": 0.5, "2026": 0.5 }, "automation": { "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "security": { "2016": 0.5, "2017": 0.5, "2018": 0.5, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "platforms": { "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4.5, "Regular minor releases (3.0 2024-11 to 3.15 2026-09) and LTS lines since 2.45 (2023)" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 4.5, "Public roadmap page, design docs, governance repository and GitHub milestones" ], [ "Say-do", 4.5, "8 of 8 tracked items GA within 12 months 2023-2026; native histograms and Remote Write 2.0 five months late" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "One or two substantive features per release; 3.0 (2024) bundled several" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 4, "One-year LTS since 2023; 2.x to 3.0 upgrade with limited breaking changes" ] ], "comm": null, "risk": "engine", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1.5, "Own TSDB block format, open source and documented; YAML configuration; OpenMetrics exposition standard" ], [ "Export path", 1, "Remote Write 1.0 and 2.0, HTTP API, snapshots and promtool dump" ], [ "Stack coupling", 1, "Standard exporters and OTLP intake; PromQL supported by many back ends" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0, "Single static binary on any OS and architecture; fully offline" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 1.5, "PromQL is specialised but widespread; Prometheus Certified Associate exam" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3, "No programme, but competing support and managed services from Grafana, Red Hat, AWS, Google, Chronosphere, PromLabs" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 0.5, "No tenancy in core; needs Mimir, Thanos or a proxy" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 4.5, "HTTP query and management APIs, Prometheus Operator CRDs, official Ansible collection, Helm charts" ], [ "Skills and certification", 4.5, "Prometheus Certified Associate from the Linux Foundation; very large community" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Prometheus is the metrics collection, storage and alerting engine much of the market builds on, and its 2023-2026 work (LTS lines, OTLP intake, native histograms, Remote Write 2.0) keeps it the reference format rather than turning it into a full monitoring suite. The project delivered every tracked item, most within a few months of target, with no licence change and no owner who could make one. For enterprise infrastructure it needs exporters, Grafana and a long-term store around it, so server, network, hypervisor and reporting depth come from add-ons scored at half.", "report": "reports/20-prometheus.md", "ai": { "infra": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0.5, "2021": 0.5, "2022": 0.5, "2023": 0.5, "2024": 0.5, "2025": 0.5, "2026": 0.5 }, "stack": { "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "agents": { "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "2020: GPU metrics via NVIDIA dcgm-exporter add-on; no anomaly detection in core", "stack": "none", "ops": "1.0 (2016): predict_linear and deriv in PromQL, rule-based only", "agents": "2025: prometheus-mcp server in the project organisation, v0.9 to v0.18 (preview)" }, "ai_ledger": null, "ai_reading": "AI say-do: 2 announced, 1 GA (native histograms), 1 preview (MCP server 0.x), 0 pending, 0 dropped. Prometheus has no machine learning; it is the metrics source other AIOps tools read." } ] }