For a programmable data center, "there is definitely a need for a unified message bus for different applications to talk to with each other," Strimling said. "If I can put things on and take things off a single message bus, I can make any two applications seem to be unified."

For instance, Zenoss operational data can provide third-party applications useful event data, such as log-analysis software. Conversely, outside data can provide a Zenoss application with vital information about new hardware or software being added to a system. "There are a lot of interesting things can be accomplished," Strimling said.

In addition to adding AMQP, Zenoss also expanded the range of actions that can be called through the software's API (application programming interface), which should also meet the demands of the programmable data center. The APIs can be accessed through the REST (Representational state Transfer), which many developers prefer interacting with, Strimling said.

The software comes with a number of other updates as well. The open-source community version can now monitor Windows servers, thanks to the release of a ZenPack that used to be available only on the commercial version. Unlike Nagios, another popular network monitoring tool, Zenoss does not require agents to be placed on the Windows computers, Strimling said. The software also includes for the first time a new jobs system functionality for running asynchronous tasks.