Comstor Southern Africa has signed a distribution contract with SolarWinds for its full range of IT infrastructure management software solutions.

SolarWinds says its tools were developed by IT administrators to address the frustrations facing IT departments and simplify the process of IT infrastructure management.

The range of solutions include software solutions for network management, systems management, database management, IT security, IT helpdesks and the cloud.

James Ndegwa, business and architecture manager at Comstor Sub-Saharan Africa, says throughout Africa, IT departments are dealing with major skills shortages, making it difficult for companies to manage their infrastructure without the help of software tools.

However, he says many of these tools have a hefty price tag, are difficult to implement and don't really tackle the challenges facingadministrators.

Having worked with SolarWinds in several Southern African countries, he says Comstor has seen the impact their software can have on better managing the infrastructure demands of customers.

Try before you buy

SolarWinds allows IT to monitor and manage the performance of an IT environment irrespective of whether it is on-premises or in the cloud. It also interacts with IT operations professionals, DevOps professionals and managed service providers (MSPs) through its Thwack online community, to continually develop its solutions by understanding the problems administrators face.

The software is also able to scale from a small business environment through to a large enterprise.

SolarWinds offers its software on a 'try before you buy' basis, whereby resellers can deploy the solution for a customer to see whether or not it is effective.