Jun 03
Recap: System Center Opalis Training
I was invited to join the Microsoft product team (formerly the Opalis product team) in Redmond for System Center Opalis Training.
It is a really interesting product so I figured I would share. Please read on…
Opalis is the automation “glue” that seals gaps between SCCM (Config Mgr), SCOM (Ops Mgr) and SCSM (Service Mgr). It was helps data move in and out of these products from other systems in the enterprise.
Think of Opalis as a GUI-based drag and drop environment that does things like: Receive Alert from Ops Mgr–>Check Service Status–>Restart Service–>Close Alert. This is a really simple example, but there are literally hundreds of objects you can pull from.
I might compare it to an identity management solution – it interconnects dissimilar systems.
And because it was a third-party product, there is support for Helpdesk suites, storage, VMware, etc.
At training we built a number of processes in the lab, and I’ve seen just a glimpse of what it can really do. One of more notable Opalis solutions we were shown was for a well-known retailer. It triggered when a vendor uploaded an FTP file to the retailer, then triggered updates to databases, replicated to remote sites, and updated web servers with new data.
By removing the manual processes, the retailer is able to update their website hourly instead of daily or weekly. And instead of dedicating five IT professionals to just this process, now they have one.
As I said, it’s an interesting product. I’m sure I’ll have follow-on posts….