In today's economic climate, ideas on how to save money are always welcome, especially when it concerns enterprise-class software. Open source network and systems management software vendor GroundWork announced a new program aimed at small businesses and a new pricing structure that makes it easy for companies to hone in on exactly the right choice for their needs.

Open source network and systems management software vendor GroundWork released a new version of its flagship product GroundWork Monitor 6.0 today with a passel of new features and a newly-designed interface. Based on the idea that the tree-style viewing options typically found in today's montoriting software is longer the best choice for applications running in the cloud, GroundWork has developed what it's calling a "Seurat View" to help users see at a glance where tiny pieces of data fit into the larger picture.

GroundWork Open Source, which provides commercial open source network management software, has announced the launch of MonitoringForge.org, which it bills as a "unified hub for open source monitoring." While the site is primarily aimed at IT administrators who want to compare open source system and network monitoring tools to proprietary alternatives, it may also serve several useful purposes for open source project leaders that don't have community web sites and need to automate aspects of projects. Here are more details.