Big fan of intermapper (www.dartware.com) ... It can use nagios plugins as well.
It's fairly cheap.. We monitor about 1250 devices at the moment with it... can be set all way down to 5 seconds.
Server and Client are both in Java... so more or less it runs on any platform.

They give out 30 day demo keys.

CDW usually has things in stock... But they aren't a gold partner.. If you want support, you'll have to go to your local cisco rep which will be pissed off because he didn't get the credit for selling you those things. Anywho.

My problem tends to be not ordering products they just got released. my 4510-E's for the new office were delayed 6 months because of power supply problems and +E blade problems.

The normal lead time on any 4948 or 4948-10G I order is 4-6 weeks. Also their normal products like ASA5510's ship in days..

Agreed... If i'm not mistaken
the 6500 NAM and NAM2 blades run linux.
and the older Cisco Content Manager caching engines ran linux (I rooted one).

So.... You're right about the compliance part.

If cisco delivered servers the way it delivers network gear:

  You will order your blades and get them 3 months later after harassing your rep over and over until they finally send them via VP signatures via a warehouse.

When people want servers, they want them in days... not months.
This can only end poorly.