Hyperic announced that CNET Networks will standardize its systems and application management on Hyperic HQ Enterprise across all its web properties. When the CNET implementation is complete, Hyperic will be deployed across thousands of live Linux servers throughout CNET’s data centers.

CNET Networks builds brands for people and the things they are passionate about, such as gaming, music, entertainment, technology, business, food and parenting. The company's leading brands include CNET, GameSpot, TV.com, MP3.com, CHOW, ZDNet and TechRepublic.

To power the various website properties, the underlying infrastructure is a sophisticated array of technologies that are updated regularly and frequently change. To ensure better coverage and service levels, the company’s operations team needed a management solution that would automate many of their management tasks, such as inventory and aggregating performance of applications. By automating these activities, the team would then be able to focus more on business critical tasks rather than the overhead of systems management.

CNET selected Hyperic HQ Enterprise for its ease of use and comprehensive, cross-platform management capabilities, including the ability auto-discover resources and to merge applications and systems monitoring—something it was unable to do with its previous management solution. Also key to CNET’s decision was the ability to provide long-term historical data on CNET’s environment and applications, which will enable its operations team to conduct trend analysis and circumvent problems before they occur.

"As a leading interactive media company, CNET Networks must implement cutting edge technology solutions that help us serve the millions of people that visit our various web sites each month,” said Alan McIntosh, vice president of Data Center Services at CNET Networks. "We purchased Hyperic HQ 3.2 Enterprise late last year and participated in the 3.2 Enterprise Beta program. With Hyperic HQ 3.2 Enterprise, our entire team will have better visibility into performance issues and trends in order to provide better coverage. This will directly improve the efficiency of our operations team while also improving the user experience by keeping our websites running at their full potential.”

Hyperic will replace CNET’s homegrown management platform which was based on several other open source technologies. Hyperic gives CNET more functionality than its previous solution, including scalability, usability, and virtualization management capabilities that help the company to stay on top of its highly customized web application infrastructure that includes large deployments of Linux, MySQL, Apache, and Resin Application Servers.

“CNET is one of the world’s largest web companies, with a complex infrastructure that leverages open source and emerging technologies like virtualization, as well as custom web apps,” said Hyperic CEO Javier Soltero. “While these technologies provide significant benefits to CNET and its users, the management challenges they create are daunting. Hyperic’s zero-config software was created specifically to help companies like CNET manage business performance, instead of spending valuable time keeping the web infrastructure up and running.”