SpiceWorld.

I stopped counting the number of times I’ve been snickered at when I mention attending this event held in Austin, TX each year. Most do a double-take and then make a joke about the Spice Girls, circa 1994.

But, despite the obvious name similarity with the British pop girl group (which I truly appreciate, by the way), SpiceWorld is a serious event, from a serious company with serious intent, and a serious and dedicated customer community. If you’re not familiar, Spiceworks (the company that owns the event) began with a simple idea: to provide IT organizations with robust management software for free.

Last year, at the 2013 event, Spiceworks made some major announcements around revamping the backend platform to accommodate better performance and scalability, allowing the company to become a viable alternative for large Enterprise organizations.

This year, Spiceworks has used its event to make four major announcements. The announcements build on last year and are what you would expect from a company desiring to expand its SMB capabilities and enter the market as an Enterprise provider in a highly competitive landscape.

Here’s what was announced:

Spiceworks App Center Launch

The App Center will enable Spiceworks users to extend the functionality of the Spiceworks’ platform by installing plugins, new IT apps and their favorite cloud services, all from a single interface. More information about the App Center is available at http://www.spiceworks.com/appcenter

Spiceworks Network Monitor Beta

Installed in less than 10 minutes, the Windows-based application provides a graphical view of network utilization and server activity including disk and CPU usage, active processes and services, system memory and other environmental data. Real-time alerting for a variety of server and network conditions is also built-in, and IT professionals will be able to address potential issues through a remote desktop connection. The Spiceworks Network Monitor is currently in beta and will be available in Q4 2014 for free. IT professionals interested in joining the Network Monitor beta can learn more at http://community.spiceworks.com/beta/spiceworks-network-monitor-beta

Spiceworks Hosted Help Desk Beta

The hosted edition of Spiceworks’ Help Desk offering is also in beta and is scheduled to be available in Q4 2014. Users interested in joining the beta program can learn more at http://community.spiceworks.com/beta/hosted-help-desk-beta. At launch, the hosted edition will be available for $10 per month per IT professional.

Spiceworks for Developers Launch

Spiceworks free developer program gives you access to development tools, documentation, and commerce support so you can develop and distribute apps in a snap. More info can be found at: http://developers.spiceworks.com/