“There's got to be an easier way!”

We move into the period full of confidence and with a new company purpose, worded in July 2020, that is dedicated to a very important cause. Here is why we do what we do every day: We believe monitoring plays a vital part in reducing humankind's consumption of resources. Monitoring data helps our customers save resources, from optimizing their IT, OT, and IoT infrastructures, to reducing energy consumption or emissions. For our future and our environment. 

From this purpose, we derive our vision: In a complex world of connected devices and data, Paessler is the customers’ choice to monitor “every thing”. Even though our founder, Dirk, is no longer active in the day-to-day business of the company, he is still a core inspiration behind our company purpose, and he supports us wherever possible in the execution of our strategy for sustainability.

In fact, climate change is a topic that has strongly motivated Dirk for many years. And, of course, we are keen not only to encourage others to monitor and reconsider their use of resources, but also to take some concrete practical steps ourselves. From 2020 we are completely CO₂ neutral, and it is our declared goal to become climate positive soon.

From 2022 onward, we will no longer purchase natural gas but will instead rely entirely on biogas. Together with our partners and customers, we increasingly address the urgent issues of resource efficiency and the sustainable, intelligent use of resources.

In addition to our purpose alignment, there has also been a change on Paessler's Management Board. At the beginning of 2022, Joachim Weber took over the position of CTO from Steven Feurer, who has left a positive mark on Paessler's software with his innovative mindset.

2017 was a special year for Paessler. The company celebrated its 20th birthday and reinforced its position as a global leader in the field of network monitoring. This milestone was a testament to its founder, Dirk Paessler, who, with his visionary thinking and drive for technology, played a pivotal role in the success of the company.

January 2018 saw Dirk step down as CEO to make way for a new CEO, Christian Twardawa, who had led the company alongside Dirk as COO for almost 15 years. And although Dirk’s daily presence was missed, he remained connected to the company as Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

Another change in 2018 was the appointment of Steven Feurer as the new CTO. Steven has a strong startup and innovation history. The new management team began a period of growth and investment in new market segments, as Paessler entered the healthcare monitoring industry and strongly positioned itself to provide innovative solutions in the IoT space. Paessler also launched a successful alliance partner program, which promotes cooperation with industry-leading IT vendors on complementary and integrated solutions that create additional benefits for our customers.

In 2019, PRTG was recognized as customers’ choice for the Gartner peer insights for IT Infrastructure Monitoring Tools and for Network Performance Monitoring and Diagnostics. Paessler realized that PRTG is no longer just a monitoring tool for small- to medium-sized businesses, but that IT teams in the enterprise space could also benefit from an easy-to-use and affordable monitoring solution. Paessler drew the obvious conclusion and introduced Paessler PRTG Enterprise Monitor (formerly known as PRTG PLUS)  – a subscription-based offering for scaling PRTG horizontally for large environments.

And, showing that we truly know how to scale, Paessler hit the 250 employees mark in early 2019!

In 2007, the office has gotten too small again. Paessler moves from Fürth to Nuremberg, within walking distance of Nuremberg Castle. Office space triples. The first US sales representatives are hired.

In 2008, PRTG Traffic Grapher 6 and IPCheck Server Monitor are converted into a single solution, and PRTG Network Monitor 7 is born – a modern and comprehensive monitoring solution that supervises availability as well as performance. The “new” PRTG Network Monitor 7 is chosen firsthand by Germany’s Network Computing as a reference for monitoring software. “For anyone looking for a heavily equipped, easy-to-use, yet cost-effective monitoring product, and who wants to support the local industry besides, Paessler’s PRTG Network Monitor is strongly recommended.” Meanwhile, Paessler keeps growing more and more:

In 2011, there are 35 employees and the office that still feels new is already getting tight again.

On August 22, 2001, Dirk founds Paessler GmbH, the predecessor of Paessler AG. The company works out of Dirk’s living room, in an office community. With Roland Grau, another developer is added to the group, and Paessler becomes three.

The company’s growing IT infrastructure is causing more and more trouble. Performance monitoring software is a must-have to find the causes behind the problems. Dirk downloads the then-popular open source tool MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher).
However, the launch of MRTG falters before it can even get started. Dirk refuses to install a piece of software for which the installation guide is 7 pages long.

“There’s got to be an easier way!!”

This becomes the “birth hour” of PRTG. Dirk programs the third piece of Paessler software, the PRTG Traffic Grapher. Even though PRTG appeals to a completely different target group today, we are still besieged with questions about MRTG and if PRTG is an MRTG spinoff. The answer is a resounding no. The source code of PRTG has nothing to do with MRTG; it only inspired the choice of name for us.