Novell Delivers Log Management Software Appliance

Novell recently announced the availability of Novell Sentinel Log Manager 1.1, making the new log management solution available as a software appliance.

Novell has long been a proponent of software appliances, which are basically pre-configured combinations of an application, middleware and operating system integrated into a single image and tailored for a physical, virtual or cloud environment.

In a blog post describing software appliances, Nat Friedman, co-founder of Ximain (now part of Novell) and former Chief Technology and Strategy Officer for Linux at Novell, said, “One of our main objectives in creating SUSE Studio was to make it ridiculously easy for software developers to distribute their applications as software appliances.”

Friedman described a software appliance as “a full application stack containing the operating system, the application software and any required dependencies, and the configuration and data files required to operate. Everything is preinstalled, pre-integrated, and ready to run.”

Further, Friedman said:

“Instead of asking their customers to assemble applications, operating systems, and middleware together themselves, software vendors can just distribute as a ready-to-run stack that boots into a setup wizard.

“The stack is assembled by the developer, so it’s the expert who’s doing all of the installation and integration, not a beginner reading a manual or a high-priced consultant making a living off his voodoo expertise.”

Meanwhile, an integral part of Novell's security management portfolio, Novell Sentinel Log Manager simplifies compliance with regulatory requirements and improves an organization's security posture, the company said. Built using SUSE Studio, Novell's web-based appliance building solution, Sentinel Log Manager helps customers reduce deployment cost and installation complexity in the highly distributed and virtualized IT environments of today.

Moreover, by deploying Novell Sentinel Log Manager as a software appliance, customers can get started in minutes and eliminate maintenance processes with the appliance’s self-updating features. Novell officials said Sentinel Log Manager 1.1 provides a cost efficient, scalable and multi-tenant log management tool with visibility into IT infrastructure activities to improve security as well as simplify regulatory compliance requirements.

"The Novell Sentinel Log Manager appliance, powered by SUSE Linux Enterprise, is a cost effective and robust enterprise log management tool that helps customers quickly and efficiently scale their security and regulatory compliance efforts," said Jim Ebzery, senior vice president and general manager of Security, Management and Operating Platforms at Novell, in a statement. "The Sentinel Log Manager appliance is yet another proof point that Novell is executing on its strategy to lead the rapidly growing intelligent workload management market. Customers are looking for solutions that integrate operating systems, middleware and applications in a single form factor that solves a critical business problem. Log management is one of the most pressing issues facing CISOs today, and this new appliance will help them resolve those challenges with a solution that is easy to install and manage."

"Software appliances are the next evolutionary step for software delivery, allowing hardware to be decoupled from the software creating adaptable mechanisms for deployment and management," said Charles Kolodgy, research vice president at IDC, also in a statement. "To quickly address the threat environment, enterprises must have flexibility in deploying security applications. This form factor can directly leverage the increasingly virtualized infrastructure within data centers, and it is capable of deploying to cloud computing environments to expand the potential utilization of security information and event management."

Novell officials said the Sentinel Log Manager 1.1 is the latest product to ship from Novell's product roadmap for the intelligent workload management market.  Product enhancements include distributed search capabilities that cut through the complexity of accessing event data by enabling customers to search events from several on- or off-premise servers for compliance management and forensics investigations, the company said in a press release. Hundreds of pre-configured templates help customers quickly and easily generate compliance attestation reports. Novell Sentinel Log Manager also uses non-proprietary storage technology to deliver unsurpassed data integrity and greater storage flexibility resulting in overall reduced cost and complexity.

"Delivering log management as a software appliance is a revolutionary approach that allows our customers to immediately derive value from their log management solution," said Prasad Jayaraman, CEO of Qubera Solutions, in a statement. "Sentinel Log Manager 1.1 delivers immediate functionality in minutes without requiring expensive proprietary hardware appliances. It also enables our customers to optimize their virtual infrastructure investments."

Novell Sentinel Log Manager easily integrates with Novell Sentinel and the Novell Identity Management suite providing organizations an easy path to identity-aware security event and information management, Novell said in its release. Real-time monitoring and remediation of network events allow customers to correlate identities, systems and data to deliver a centralized view of business operations, so organizations can continuously enforce security and access-related policies, making it easy to manage risk and prove compliance, the company said.

Sentinel Log Manager 1.1 is available as a software appliance powered by SUSE Linux Enterprise 11. Novell Sentinel Log Manager (SLM) includes a free SUSE Linux Enterprise subscription and SLM software update service. More information can be found at http://www.novell.com/products/sentinel-log-manager/.