ManageEngine today announced the general availability of ITPulse, a private social network built exclusively for IT teams. ITPulse engages and socializes IT teams by establishing a one-stop, cascading wall for real-time display of IT infrastructure health and collaboration in a secure and fun environment.

Today’s lean IT model forces IT teams to make decisions on the fly, forcing them to ditch the traditional email-based communication systems and adopt instant collaboration tools such as Facebook-type social networks. However, concerns about data security make IT reluctant to adopt social networks for official communication. To meet the unique communication needs of IT, ITPulse includes a Facebook-like wall for having discussions and sharing articles and videos in a private and restricted domain. Only users within the domain can access the wall, and the data shared are not leaked to the outside world.

“IT teams love ITPulse as it offers a common wall for both IT and IT management tools,” said Dev Anand, director of product management at ManageEngine. “Any alarm, event, report, overdue ticket, etc. created in the IT management tool is automatically posted on the wall. IT folks can pick them up from the wall in real time and start working on them straightaway.”

Anand added, “Apart from offering a social platform for real-time collaboration, ITPulse also acts as a secure communication channel during disasters such as a mail server outage. IT folks can discuss the issue and the troubleshooting steps on the wall from anywhere, anytime.”

IT Gets a Social Network of Its Own

ITPulse reflects the experience and expertise ManageEngine has developed in serving more than 60,000 customers representing more than one million IT users worldwide. The overarching goal of ITPulse is to improve the quality of information and communications for IT users. To that end, ManageEngine is making ITPulse available as both a standalone SaaS service as well as a module that will integrate with its portfolio of IT management tools, including

• OpManager
  – User actions, such as alarm pickup, alarm clear, alarm delete and
  alarm notes, will be reflected automatically on the ITPulse wall.
• ServiceDesk
  Plus – User actions, such as ‘add a knowledge-base article,’
  ‘add a problem request,’ ‘add a change request,’ and ‘approve a change
  request,’ will be posted on the ITPulse wall automatically.
  Additionally, users working from within the ITPulse UI will be able to
  initiate actions in ServiceDesk Plus.

The integrations, in turn, drive powerful automations that streamline IT collaboration in problem prevention and resolution. For example, if a network admin makes a change to a router config file, which is picked up by change management software and reported in OpManager as an alarm, the data gets posted on the ITPulse wall if someone acknowledges the alarm or adds notes to it — a much faster process than communicating via email or telephone.

ITPulse includes group-in-group support, which lets sub-teams within an IT team privately chat among themselves, keeping private discussions intact and posting only the key findings to the entire team.

In addition to ManageEngine users, the company is making ITPulse available to all IT community members regardless of the tools they use to manage their networks. The ITPulse API is open and publicly available, enabling integration with tools from BMC, CA, HP, IBM and other vendors, as well as with homegrown management solutions, such as a daily back-up script for a storage area network. The company is also making ManageEngine professional services available to provide technical support for third-party integrations.

Pricing and Availability

ITPulse is available immediately. In addition to the ITPulse Free Edition, which supports up to two users, ITPulse Professional Edition is $5 per user per month. The Professional Edition includes technical support via support@youritpulse.com. ITPulse is available at a discount for existing ManageEngine customers; this special offer can be accessed at http://ow.ly/chvJx.

Users can sign up for ITPulse at https://youritpulse.com/signup. User licenses are available via the ITPulse store at http://itpulse.myshopify.com/products/it-pulse-user-license and via direct sales at sales@youritpulse.com.

For more information on ITPulse, please visit http://youritpulse.com. For more information on ManageEngine, please visit http://www.manageengine.com; follow the company blog at http://blogs.manageengine.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ManageEngine and on Twitter at @ManageEngine.