Welcome to SolarWinds’ first virtual conference, thwackCamp 2012! Join our VP of Product Management, Denny LeCompte and get a full understanding of our product offerings and what values you can expect from us today and in the future.

1. Welcome to thwackCamp 2012
Presented By: Denny LeCompte, VP of Product Management
© 2012 SOLARWINDS WORLDWIDE, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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2. Thanks for tuning in
» Welcome to SolarWinds®’ first virtual conference,
thwackCamp 2012!
» Why a conference?
» Why a virtual conference?
» Who is the intended audience?
» What do we think you’ll get out of thwackCamp?
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3. In the beginning, we were network management
» SolarWinds® was started by a working network engineer who
was trying to solve his own problems
 By a network engineer, for a network engineer
» Everything grew from that kernel
 We have a built a portfolio of products aimed network engineers
 We are fully committed to continue enhancing that portfolio
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4. Network Management Portfolio
» Network Performance Monitor
» NetFlow Traffic Analyzer
» Network Configure Manager
» VoIP & Network Quality Manager
» User Device Tracker
» IP Address Manager
» Firewall Security Manager
» Engineer’s Toolset
» LANsurveyor®
» Kiwi Syslog® Server
» Kiwi CatTools®
» AM I FORGETTING ANY?
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5. But what about the poor sysadmins?
» A couple of years ago, we began to look around beyond strict
network management
 We have spent years trying to provide network management tools that
provide an alternative to the slow, expensive, unusable software that
the “Big 4” offer
» We noticed that some of our customers were actually
systems administrators
 They suffered from the same problems as network engineers
 Their management software tended to be overpriced, underpowered,
hard to use, and required a crew of consultants to install it and a
couple of IT professionals just to keep it functioning
» We decided that we would try to create a portfolio to
provide the same values to sysadmins that we’ve been
providing to network engineers for years
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6. What are the values you should expect in every
SolarWinds’ product?
» Simple to use
 Simple to install, easy to learn, intuitive to solve problems every single
day
» Powerful
 All the features you need without any “three-
armed sweaters”
» Scalable
 Our products can manage large enterprises
• The “SMB” label we get is a misnomer because some folks think that if the
mid-market shop can actually use it and afford it, it must be because it isn’t
powerful. That’s just arrogance from the old guard.
» Affordable
 Not cheap, but well within the budgets of even smaller mid-market
shops
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7. Our SysAdmin Portfolio has grown
» Server & Application Monitor
» Virtualization Manager
» Storage Manager
» Patch Manager
» Log & Event Manager
» DameWare® Remote Support
» Web Help Desk™
» Mobile Admin™
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8. What’s with the acquisitions?
» Long-time customers can see that SolarWinds has built many
new products, but we’ve also acquired quite a few
» Why buy rather than build everything ourselves?
 We first decide that we want to solve a problem for our customers
 Then we decide whether we should build it or buy it
 When we decide to buy, it’s because we think there’s a product
already out there that solves the problem the way we would want to
solve it
 Buying is a recognition that not all great products are invented here
» We love and believe in our “adopted” products just like the
ones we birthed ourselves
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9. If a product already existed, how does
SolarWinds’ buying it help customers?
For the products we buy, we tend to do a number of things, although not
everything, on those products
» We often lower pricing because we want to reach a wide audience;
 We’re not trying to make every possible dollar out of every sale
» We often add more engineers to the product;
 We don’t buy it and “milk it”. We buy it and nurture it.
» We make more people aware of the product;
 We have found some brilliant products that were well-kept secrets because the
companies that built them had no brand and few dollars for marketing
» We apply our user experience team to the new product.
 Few small startups can afford it, but we have an amazing user experience team.
They work with the engineers to immediately make the user experience even
better
» We add the product to the SolarWinds community.
 No IT professional is an island. When we bring it into the fold, we also bring it to
thwack, so that our community can add value to the experience too.
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10. What can you expect from us in the future
Expect us to keep making your products better
» We’re going to keep improving our products until they reach some
asymptotic level of perfection
We’re not done adding products
» Stay tuned for new network management products
» The more time we spend with them, the more we learn how hard
out there it is for a SysAdmin, so more systems management tools
are on the way
Our ears are open….
» If there are other parts of IT management that you
think needs the SolarWinds treatment, go to
thwack.solarwinds.com and tell us
» We read every post, so keep talking to us, and
we’ll keep talking back
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11. Q&A
Q&A
© 2012 SOLARWINDS WORLDWIDE, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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12. Continue the Conversation…
» Chat with product experts in the thwackCamp Product
Showcase
» Join us in the thwackCamp group on thwack® to continue
Q&A for this session
» Discover additional information in the SolarWinds Resource
Center
© 2012 SOLARWINDS WORLDWIDE, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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