Novadigm, Marimba Pump Up Their Wares

Rival software and content distribution product providers Novadigm Inc. and Marimba Inc. headed off in different directions this week to extend their reach.

Novadigm on Tuesday unveiled the latest release of its Radia Management Suite for Windows that focuses on Microsoft Corp.s Windows XP operating system.

Version 3.0 implements a new architecture intended to shorten the time it takes to rollout the software. With the new plug-in-and-operate infrastructure, "you can inject agents on new machines when they log on. You drop in our server and it automatically discovers machines, drops in agents, does inventory and starts managing them," said Joseph Fitzgerald, chief technology officer at Novadigm, of Mahwah, N.J.

The new release also adds the Radia Management Portal, designed so that administrators with different roles or responsibilities only have to learn the aspects of the system that are appropriate to their jobs. The portal can be accessed from any browser on any platform. The roles function can be used to allow self-service management of software, applications and content.

Radia Management Suite for Windows V 3.0 is due next month.

Meanwhile, Marimba extended its Internet-based software and content distribution capabilities to a variety of Internet appliances.

The Mountain View, Calif., company added a new embedded management product family to its desktop and server management offerings. The line is intended to allow home networking devices, server appliances, and other networking devices as well as applications and other software to be upgraded "on fly from a remote location," said Michael Hughes, vice president of the embedded management products. Intel Corp., for example, is using the software to update its AnyPoint products, officials said.

Unlike manual CDs or diskettes, or File Transfer Protocol updates, the embedded management software allows for transparent updates or patches. Marimba officials believe it can be used by independent software vendors and appliance vendors to offer services that provide continual updating, patches and content updates.

The software is built into Intels AnyPoint connectivity suite for home networking. "It reduces our support burden," said Nelson Yaple, director of engineering for Intels residential access division in Portland, Ore.

The Marimba embedded management software is available now in Java, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Solaris, Linux and QNX.