Application Management Tool Maps Dependencies

The highly fragmented applications management arena this week will get a bit more complicated when startup Relicore Inc. formally launches its first tool.

The new enterprise application infrastructure tracking tool, dubbed Clarity, can automatically discover, track and map application infrastructure dependencies, allowing applications operators to more quickly trouble-shoot application faults. The tool eases management of changes to application environments and plans for application server consolidation projects. It can also aid in disaster recovery and business continuity planning, said Relicore officials, in Burlington, Mass.

Clarity, in its MapIt dynamic dependency mapping function, automatically draws an applications topology map that shows the interrelationships among applications files and servers, and it updates dependency changes as they occur. Dependencies are shown both within and among servers, and business processes are mapped to supporting application infrastructures.

The tools DiscoverIt function can locate applications within specified application servers, server attributes, load balancer configurations and Domain Name System information. Detailed application data such as version number, installation directory, application components and server on which an application is installed can be discovered for both packaged and custom applications, officials said.

The TrackIt function can automatically show changes to applications, servers, files, registry keys and permissions.

Although Clarity can be used in a variety of management disciplines, including asset management, application fault management, capacity planning and other functions, Tim Grieser, an analyst at International Data Corp., in Framingham, Mass., said the tool sits squarely in the application problem management space.

"If there is a change in a data file that causes an application to fail, Relicore can detect that," Grieser said. "Thats fairly unique. No one does that dynamic dependency detection and monitoring and looks at the relationship between application components and files and data."

Clarity has been tested with BEA Systems Inc.s WebLogic application server. It provides a view of distributed applications running on Oracle Corp.s 9i application servers and Oracle databases and is interoperable with RSA Security Inc.s SecureID authentication.

Clarity, available now from Relicore, starts at $100,000.