In a nutshell, what is DPOD?

IBM DataPower Operations Dashboard is a powerful tool designed to increase the productivity and level of service for DataPower customers. It comprises a set of self-service tools for consumers and providers that are normally unfamiliar with DataPower and do not have access to a DataPower console.

IBM DataPower Operations Dashboard delivers first in class centralized troubleshooting capabilities alongside expert-level analysis for DataPower administrators in production and non-production environments

What sets DPOD apart from competing products?

DPOD was built primarily as a Gateway-centric tool, designed to solve real-world problems defined by DataPower experts.

DPOD uniquely combines the transactions' perspective -  which your service consumers, service providers, operator, developers and administrators can use to resolve errors using  the Self Service user interface - with an administrative perspective - which includes statistics, full resource usage information, device health, etc.

DPOD has also the following unique features for Gateway’s Gateway:

1) DPOD is that it monitors early-processing faults, such as SSL handshakes and fault URLs. This type of errors cannot be caught by error handling rules, and DPOD provides a distinct advantage in troubleshooting these errors quickly and effortlessly.

2) DPOD sample services configuration and compares them on ever time intervals.

3) DPOD provide you analytics and history  on your Device/Domain restarts, shutdown and reboots.

4) DPOD provide you information on your Objects operational status for Object that are enabled.

What do your customers say is the best thing about DPOD?

All our customers say that the best thing about DPOD is that it exists! When we press them for more, they first mention how DPOD allows them to quickly and easily track down errors, and then they tell us that ever since provisioning consumers, providers, and developers with self-service access to DPOD’s Web Console, the number of support calls they are fielding has dropped significantly, allowing them to focus on their own tasks rather than mundane maintenance.

What makes DPOD the best troubleshooting tool for DataPower?

The best thing about DPOD is how quickly you can track down faulty transactions. Without it, it is nearly impossible to find a single error within Gateway’s logs, as they are swamped with a myriad of other messages that roll out too quickly.

Currently, there is no good way to store and search Gateway’s logs for messages by content, and the problem grows linearly with additional DataPower Gateways. This will require manually going into each and every one of them - an unrealistic task in most sites.

This usually means that you’ll have to re-create the error condition in real-time – a highly problematic requirement in production systems – and even this method does not guarantee you'll find the message you are looking for.

With DPOD, you can pinpoint faulty services and transactions in a heartbeat, whether it occurred a few seconds or a week ago. You can search for errors, components, services, and even run queries based on message content.

DPOD lets you view all your messages on a single screen, or you can drill down into the appliance, service or transaction details.

We have found that customers who use this unique feature of DPOD improve their troubleshooting times by an order of magnitude.

Who in my organization will benefit from using DPOD?

The short answer is: your entire staff will benefit from using DPOD.

Developers will be able to track down errors in any DataPower machine throughout the network with a click of a button.

Administrators, using DPOD’s built-in administrative reports and charts, will be able to ensure all your DataPower Gateways are running smoothly, and receive alerts on any malfunction.

Service Consumers and Service Providers can use the self-service roles-based UI to track down their specific transactions.

Architects and efficiency consultants will be able to use DPOD to obtain a complete overview of business transaction times, and quickly drill-down into the most problematic services.

Finally, using DPOD’s bird’s-eye view of the health and performance of your entire DataPower setup, your management staff will be able to make informed decisions on the future road-map of your SOA infrastructure.

What sort of ROI can I expect from using DPOD?

DPOD will enable you to track down errors extremely quickly, compared with either using DataPower by itself or using a competing monitoring product.

This translates directly into time your developers and administrators spend resolving malfunctions, in production as well as during development or unit tests time.

DPOD helps your staff to focus on what they’re supposed to do, and can significantly increase your service up-time.

In the long run, you can expect DPOD to help you manage your DataPower Gateways far more efficiently compared to other methods available.

DPOD provides you with crucial, single-view and easy to understand information on the slowest, most error-prone and resource-hungry services in your system. This allows you to focus on improving these problematic services, which will in turn improve performance and response-time for the entire appliance and reduce licensing costs.

What sort of reports can DPOD generate?

Right off the bat, DPOD offers you reports, statistics and graphs of all your transactions, services and appliances. We have configured a wide array of views and graphs into DPOD’s Console, but you can also execute, schedule and even create new reports which may be stored on DPOD's file system or emailed as spreadsheets.

Can I see a live demo?

Sure!  Please contact your IBM sales representatives for details.

If you want a full guided tour of DPOD features and capabilities, send us an email, and we will schedule an online session between you and one of our team members.