Any system that runs production software must be monitored for its adherence to the agreed service levels. Software such as Nagios and MRTG are helpful products but have important drawbacks. First of all, they combine too much functionality in one product -- limiting its usefulness in other situations --, and secondly they do not provide well-defined parameters for inclusion in SLA's -- undefined ad-hoc if-then-if-else-if-not-but-then-if-else constructions obscure the parameters, leaving them essentially meaningless.
Gustos is CQ2's approach to System Management (CQ2 Continuous Management). It provides an extremely flexible high level programming language to reliably monitor systems and take appropriate actions. All data-processing is done using vector calculus in a sub-language created by mathematicians: Python. This yields a very reliable basis for e-Mail or SMS notifications about serious events. Also, it has a Weightless webserver built in, spitting out graphs of certain parameters. The Gustos system is currently in use and we are working to create a customer portal that allows them to see the actual behavior of their system with regard to the agreed service levels.