 In September 2001, Balog joined Oculan, which was developing the open-source OpenNMS network management software framework under the leadership of the project's founder and the original chief technologist Steve Giles.His role was to build a business around support and services for OpenNMS, as a complement to Oculan's previous channel-only approach to selling its line of OpenNMS-powered network management appliances.In 2002, Oculan discontinued work on the OpenNMS open-source project, turning its focus solely to its appliance business.