infrastructure · monitoring · ai
Notes from the part of IT
nobody thanks you for.
Honest write-ups on the infrastructure I run and the AI I build to deal with it — escaping overpriced monitoring tools, standing up open-source stacks, and turning "there should be a tool for this" into actual tools. Not an expert. Just someone who keeps the lights on and ships.
start here · the renewal trap
Your SolarWinds renewal doubled. Here's the honest way out. →
SolarWinds vs Prometheus vs Zabbix at scale — cost, SNMP, alerting, HA and AI-readiness, with no vendor pulling the strings.
the database
130 monitoring tools, compared honestly
Every network, infra and observability tool — license, pricing model, and the catch no vendor writes down. Filter, compare, decide.
the guides
Which one should you actually use?
Opinionated “best tool for ___” guides — homelab, SolarWinds escapes, Datadog alternatives — ranked from the database. No sponsorships.
recent entries
The 6 Ways Monitoring Tools Bill You (One Is a Trap)
Per-host, per-GB, per-event, per-node, flat, or free — the pricing model decides your monitoring bill more than the tool does. Here's the one that quietly bankrupts you.
Escaping SolarWinds Without Losing Your Mind
SolarWinds vs Prometheus vs Zabbix — an honest, at-scale comparison from someone staring down a doubled renewal: cost, SNMP, alerting, HA, and AI-readiness.
Your Switches Are Screaming. Nobody's Listening.
Building a real-time AI log analyzer from scratch with a Unix box, a few devices, and zero enterprise software. Here's the actual POC.
The AI Write Tool Factory: 1,000 Pages, Zero Prompts
What if every 'ai write [X]' Google search had its own single-purpose tool page? The keyword data says yes.
Network Monitoring Is a Racket Built on Free Protocols
SolarWinds charges six figures to run SNMP queries you could do from a Raspberry Pi. AI is about to make that business model very uncomfortable.