A Google for your network infrastructure?

Paglo, a totally free “world’s first search engine for IT”, is a web-based service that lets IT professionals search their own IT infrastructure assets. I signed up for the beta in November last year but only received the invitation earlier this month.

Information about the target network is gathered by a software agent, Paglo crawler, which installs on a standard computer connected to the network. The crawler can put together an exhaustive set of information about network hosts with information such as device type, device name, IP address, installed software, disk space usage and so on. The crawler uploads the information to Paglo’s data center for storage and indexing. This information can later be retrieved through a web-based interface.

Let’s take a look at the installation steps.

Figure 1: The Paglo Crawler Install dialog box

Figure 2: Selection of the network segment

Figure 3: Input credentials for network devices

Figure 4: Credential details

Figure 5: Microsoft AD domain admin credential input

Figure 6: Registering the Paglo.com web account

Figure 7: The Dashboard screen
A good usage demo is provided on Paglo.com which can be accessed here.

Paglo even sports its own API which allows custom programs/scripts to search information and to submit additional custom information to the database by means of Paglo’s very own Paglo Query Language or PQL. For those curious about PQL, it is similar to SQL. Here’s an example:

SELECT * FROM /network/device WHERE interface/(name = ‘eth0′ AND oper_status = ‘1′)

As far as security of the information hosted with Paglo is concerned, Paglo’s security statement lists sufficient details of the technical and admin controls in place but mentions no details of third-party engagement to verify the claims. It would be good to see them undergo at least a SysTrust audit to get the attention of the more mid-sized organizations.

Paglo’s founders are not clear on how Paglo would make money for them at this stage. I am guessing it is likely to be targeted advertising from the big players in IT directed towards Paglo users, that relate to their respective IT environments.