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Shy but interesting look at the history of monitoring

by | Last updated Aug 27, 2021 | Community

History of monitoring: find out its controversial origin

Close your eyes and breathe slowly, can you already feel the coolness on the tips of your boots? On the tense phalanges of your hands? The first step is right in front of you. It is a spiral staircase armed with worn ashlars under old voussoirs. The dim light of a chandelier accompanies you. What are you waiting for? Go up! The forbidden book awaits you in the last of the stays, where you will finally find out something about the history of monitoring.

Once in the room, the cobwebs removed and with your medieval sword parked in a corner as if it were a broom, you decide to go to the sacred lectern, made of noble wood, which crowns the annex to the chapel. The codex has heavy covers and hard nerves, and in gold letters it says: The history of monitoring.

That’s when you lick your finger to turn the pages and start with the story without fear of being interrupted by anyone:

“Let’s see, let’s see, History of monitoring, well, as such, I don’t know if there will be”, the book begins.

“Well, that is a good start”, you say to yourself and keep reading.

“Let’s see, let’s see, History of monitoring, well, as such, I don’t know if there will be, but let’s go back to some possible origins. Nothing related to Palaeolithic or from the Restoration, for there to be computer monitoring, computers must exist, and I can already tell you that although a pelican served as an efficient and modern concrete mixer, computers did not arrive until much later.

“We want to focus within this codex, which already came out with yellowed sheets by default, on an idea: Think that the first computers, since Alan Turing were huge hulks that filled rooms and there was always a guy there overwatching that they would work well. That man who lived alone, keeping an eye on pilots and cables in those mouse traps where only he, his lunch and the huge computer fit, that was the first existing monitoring. That is, a discreet guy, perhaps affiliated to some football team, checking that everything went well. That was the first monitoring system. Pure history of monitoring anddd his name was Arthur Bernard.”

“Arthur Bernard?!” you will ask, exalted.

“Well, we actually have no idea what he was called. But we are going to say it was Arthur Bernard to not reify it with a number. But let’s continue with our pilgrim story, dear reader. We suppose, and it is not much to suppose, that, with time and innovations, someone called Arthur Bernard to his office, you know, a guy in a tie, already an expert in the field, and told him ‘Get out of here Ar, I know that it has been many years of service and of monitoring the mercury thermometers of each computer, but we have already managed to read these automatically and present the data on the computer itself, we do not need you, grab your surveillance stool and your lunch and go’.

“Arthur Bernard cried day and night during the first week, earning the hatred of his neighbors, landlady, dogs, wife and children. In fact, those who could, packed their belongings in a bundle and took off. His wife first. She had no respect for crying people. That is why she also left one of the boys with Arthur Bernard.

“Once recovered and rehydrated, Arthur Bernard reconsidered, the first monitoring was no more than custom scripts for each situation. In fact, that was the foundation of companies like Nagios, one of the longest-running monitoring companies. Arthur Bernard saw the light and set up his own monitoring business with his motherless daughter, Galthwey, as a consultant. Both devoted themselves to standardizing the use of those scripts we are talking about, so that they could be centrally executed. It was no longer a single computer, wide in size, there were ten or a hundred, it is true that you could no longer hire a guy, no matter how nice and professional he was, to look at each damn screen of each damn computer. The thing was to collect the information and centralize it on a single screen, a very big and cool one. Flat, if possible. So yes, a single guy, nice and professional, could have visibility of thousands of devices at the same time in a single point.

“And not only that, the Bernards team decided to go further, moving on now to the history of monitoring. They optimized an idea called ‘Alerts by thresholds’, a key piece of how network monitoring is understood today. After that, fame, recognition, and fortune came pouring in. In fact, they wanted to reinstate Arthur Bernard to his old company, from which he was cruelly fired and he said no. What’s more, his old wife wanted to get together with him again and reunite the children, and she told him that the children would reunite but that he no longer returned with her or the dog, that always ended up biting his socks. And the neighbors and the landlady also came in line but he told them no. Now he and his children, all the Bernards, were on their own in this new conquest of the world of technology.”

Once the book is slammed shut, and after the ejected and suspended dust has settled down again on the covers, you are glad to have been part of this new adventure and to finally know that that first company that Arthur Bernard created with his baby was called Pandora FMS, the legend that is already part of the history of monitoring.

Once you’ve read all this and more, we may seem unfathomable, but don’t get scared, take your little paper boat and explore all Pandora FMS features you want with a completely free and functional trial for 30 days . You will surely stay with us!

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