About Spook
Spook was founded in 2003 and we have been passionate about remote monitoring from day one.
Since our inception "Prevention is better than cure" has been our defining mantra in everything we do.
According to Oxford University Press "Prevention is better than cure" is a proverbial saying, early 17th century. A similar idea is found in a Latin saying of the mid 13th century, "it is better and more useful to meet a problem in time than to seek a remedy after the damage is done".
The founding directors of Spook, Martin and Andrew, have worked together since 1996 and set up Spook from scratch in 2003.
Martin has a technical background, with a sound foundation in electrical engineering. He has worked with some of the largest service providers over the years including Radio Rentals and IBM. He moved into disaster recovery and business continuity in 1996 where he met and worked alongside Andrew; Martin managed the technical services division.
Andrew has a sales background within a wide variety of industries, including FMCG (Gillette), printed and electronic data services (FT Extel Financial, Standard & Poor’s and Telekurs international). He moved into disaster recovery and business continuity in 1996 where he met and worked alongside Martin; Andrew managed the telemarketing and sales divisions.
Two decades later, they remain as co-founding directors of Spook. Each having a wealth of experience in each of their chosen career paths, although both have learnt skills in each of the others backgrounds ensuring Spook’s award winning remote monitoring service called OmniWatch continues to evolve and be a market leader in intelligent remote monitoring.
Why call ourselves Spook?
We develop our software to monitor third party hardware.
We wanted a name that could be associated with being available 24/7 and have an investigative theme so we landed on Spook.
A Spook is a ghost, something in a location 24/7: spook·i·er, spook·i·est.
Informal. like or befitting a spook or ghost.
A spook is the agent tasked with "erasing an issue".
Differing from a spy, a spook does not exist on paper anywhere.
Why call our remote software monitoring service OmniWatch?
Our software has been designed to be manufacturer and protocol independent. We can monitor any type of equipment or asset and we wanted a name that reflected this.
Omni
Etymology: Ultimately from Latin - Omnis ("all")
Watch
Verb: Look at or observe attentively over a period of time
Winner
Most Innovative Solution of the Year
Winner
Specialist Technology Company of the Year
Software development
Our software development is in-house and our customers drive our software development roadmap.
With an exceptionally loyal customer base we are privileged to embrace end user suggestions for our commitment to constant software development.
With new functionality and new software versions being to the benefit of all, everyone enjoys the latest releases during the lifetime of their contracts.
We welcome ideas so much we have a feedback button on a users navigation bar for quick and easy idea sharing back to Spook.
Why choose Spook and OmniWatch
New to monitoring
We help organisations start monitoring projects from scratch. We have a wealth of experience that is free and helpful in creating an informed approach to monitoring.
We are also resellers to industry leading sensor and equipment manufacturers and can recommend the most appropriate hardware and sensors to fit any size monitoring project.
We had been considering monitoring for a while but did not have the resource or the knowledge to fully understand how to go about doing things from scratch.
We approached Spook as they have lots of experience in looking independently at monitoring projects. They recommended and provided the most appropriate hardware and sensors for us.
The sensors arrived pre-configured and were implemented on OmniWatch by Spook before we installed them.
Additional monitoring
Many of our customers have tried monitoring for themselves.
This ranges from institutions that rely on equipment onboard data loggers and communications cards; to organisations that have started monitoring projects but need help to extend monitoring to new areas and/or implement a central monitoring solution.
We needed a remote monitoring service that did not require an on premise PC and was independent of our network.
Spook provided pre-configured cellular routers for each of our five locations across the UK. The whole project was a simple plug-and-play solution with no involvement from us.
We had been considering monitoring for a while but did not have the resource or the knowledge to fully understand how to go about doing things.
When we Googled the various areas of interest we got more confused.
We approached Spook as they have a different outlook to simply buying hardware and sensors. Thankfully we now have a fully installed, joined up monitoring solution.
We had a series of climate monitors installed in our server rooms. Due to a change in our security policy we needed a remote monitoring service that did not require an on premise PC and was independent of our network.
Spook suggested a technology upgrade and provided pre-configured cellular routers for each of our five server locations across the UK. The whole project was a simple plug-and-play solution with no involvement from us.
Spook timeline
2024
OmniWatch support for food and drug storage monitoring
Added support for high precision FDA-approved food contact materials and EN12830 Standard certified IP67 rated sensors to monitor all parts of the cold chain.
2023
OmniWatch LoRaWAN PowerPlug/Power Meter support
Remote monitoring for power sockets. Power socket remote management and power meter readings for sustainability and green initiatives.
2023
OmniWatch SIM based SmartPlug support
Remote monitoring for incoming socket power; remote on/off/reboot functionality.
2023
OmniWatch support for NB-IoT LTE sensors
Remote monitoring for NB-IoT indoor sensors. A range of sensors with onboard SIMS (no gateways required).
2022
Public utility monitoring service
OmniWatch introduces its public utility monitoring service, empowering energy managers to achieve energy efficiency and lower energy costs.
2021
Indoor air quality monitoring service
OmniWatch introduces support for indoor office based monitoring with the ability to monitor air quality and CO2 levels.
2020
Specialist Technology Company of the Year
Spook wins the CIR Business Continuity Award for Specialist Technology Company of the Year.
2020
OmniWatch LoRaWAN support
OmniWatch introduces support for the LoRaWAN protocol expanding monitoring into the Internet of Things (IoT) market.
2020
OmniWatch cellular support
OmniWatch introduces support for cellular technology allowing monitoring to be seperated from the corporate LAN.
2019
OmniWatch wireless support
OmniWatch introduces support for wireless sensors removing the need for network attached devices.
2016
OmniWatch launches
OmniWatch is launched and becomes manufacturer independent and protocol neutral expanding what could be monitored.
2015
Creation of OmniWatch
Development work begins on OmniWatch which would be the next evolution of Spook Console and move it to a cloud based approach.
2011
Most Innovative Solution of the Year
Spook Console wins the CIR Business Continuity Award for Most Innovative Solution of the Year.
Sungard Availability Services outsources management of its environmental monitoring service Vigil Plus to Spook.
2008
European Code of Conduct for Data Centres Endorser
Spook is granted Endorser status for the European Code of Conduct for Data Centres by introducing more in-depth power monitoring in Spook Console.
The ability to monitor DCiE and PUE is launched.
2007
Introduced power monitoring
The Spook Console application was expanded to include power monitoring of intelligent power strips.
2003
Spook Console launched
Spook launches its own server room climate monitoring application.
Aquires the customer base of competitors product Vigilant.
2003
Spook incorporated
Spook was co-founded by Directors who had previously worked together in disaster recovery and work place recovery since 1996.
Spook was created with the ethos that prevention is better than cure.
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Get in touch with Spook
Please contact us if you wish for further information on how Spook can help with your environmental and power monitoring needs.