What’s Hot, May 2006

Detect Network Problems Before They Occur
Network Instrument' Observer Suite

Portia Ulinski had to monitor her network's infrastructure at 56 remote offices across the United States as well as at company headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Members of her staff often found themselves responding to problems rather than preventing them. Looking for a product that would provide comprehensive coverage for her entire network, Ulinski found and purchased Network Instruments' Observer Suite and 60 probes. Observer Suite provides network analysis for your LAN, wireless, 802.11a/b/g, low-utilization gigabit, token-ring, and Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) shared and switched networks. The product monitors and controls standard remote-monitoring devices, and its Web Reporting feature lets you view your network statistics from any Web-enabled browser. Observer Suite also provides an SNMP management console to optimize your network devices.

Although the typical workday ends at 5:00 P.M., Observer Suite continues to work around the clock. "Observer Suite is like having an employee on site at all hours to manage our network," says Ulinski. "We've been very satisfied, and Observer Suite has prevented us from experiencing any downtime."

Take Snapshots Without Using Scripts
Altiris Client Management Suite

Casey Jones of Charlotte, North Carolina, was looking for a desktop deployment and management solution. After downloading a trial product and visiting with Altiris representatives, Jones purchased Altiris Client Management Suite. Jones found the features in Client Management Suite to be "phenomenal and limitless." He explains, "The features cover every inch of desktop management you could possibly imagine. Client Management Suite offers great packaging options, letting you take machine snapshots without any knowledge of scripting. To distribute software, I use the Management Console, which lets you drag and drop software to a machine or groups of machines. You can even set up the product to automatically deploy software and images."

Client Management Suite offers several reporting services and customization options. Jones says, "The product supplies numerous preconfigured reports and dashboards for easy-to-read graphs. You can even have Client Management Suite automatically export a report to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and then have Client Management Suite email the report. Report customization is limitless. For example, if you need to know how many computers have Adobe Reader installed, along with the version number and date of install, Client Management Suite can tell you. Overall, Client Management Suite is in a class of its own and has endless possibilities."

Customized Network Management
Configuresoft Enterprise Configuration Manager

Before purchasing Configuresoft Enterprise Configuration Manager (ECM), Jon Saultz of Colorado Springs, Colorado, didn’t have control of his IT infrastructure. “The solution to my lack of control was simple,” says Saultz, “I needed a systems management solution. With ECM, I have a complete systems management solution that provides everything from patch management to maintaining regulatory compliance. ECM’s Web-based console lets me know exactly what is on my network and is fully customizable. ECM also provides very granular distributed management, letting me give other users the appropriate tools to access parts of the network. ECM is a complete solution and a central place to go for information about my network.”

ECM’s Configuration Management Database (CMDB) stores information about the security, configuration, and assets of your IT infrastructure. The CMDB drives ECM’s Web-based console, which lets you leverage information about your network and make the appropriate changes when necessary. For pricing information,contact Configuresoft.

Network Monitoring
Argent Software's Argent Guardian

Sylvie Nuzzolilo of Fort Worth, Texas, was looking for a scalable monitoring and alerting solution for her servers and found it with Argent Software's flagship product, Argent Guardian. Argent Guardian has an agent-optional architecture that lets you choose whether to install agents to monitor your entire network infrastructure. Predefined Rule Sets proactively monitor your network infrastructure from a single console, identifying and correcting problems before your users become aware of them. When problems arise in your servers, Argent Guardian can send alerts through email, Short Message Service (SMS), or a pager.

Since purchasing Guardian, Nuzzolilo has streamlined the monitoring of her servers. She explains, "We are now more proactive in our approach and much more efficient, using only one person to schedule events and to take action on our network infrastructure issues. Guardian also lets us remediate issues before alerting, thus providing less dependency on human interaction and enabling quicker response times to network problems."