While industry tools like IBMs Tivoli products and Hewlett-Packard Co.s OpenView are good at managing networks and resources, they dont actually configure infrastructure on an IT staffers behalf. Such is the role of Terraspring Inc., a Freemont, Calif., startup launching its first product next month.
Terraspring 1.0, debuting Nov. 20, will do more than just manage server farms, said Tom Markson, co-founder and chief architect. The product will actually take a generic network setup and configure it in the most efficient manner, he said. Moreover, he said, in the next version, due next summer or fall, the product will be able to manage itself, making network or device adjustments as usage changes.
The new product can also manage security needs, Markson said. He and the companys other two founders all are former Sun Microsystems Inc. employees and worked on security issues, he said.
The product will cost about $4,000 to $5,000 per device managed, plus a base price of about $200,000. Other features are Web-based management and support for storage-area networks and Extensible Markup Language.
San Franciscos Wells Fargo & Co. is beta testing Terraspring 1.0 in its Private Client Services division.
“So far it looks pretty good,” said Paul Ho-Sing Lo, the divisions chief technology officer. “Were looking at a test and development environment to start with.”
That test has a server farm of 25, scaling to 100 soon.
“We havent had any major problems with it,” he said. Ho-Sing Lo cited Terrasprings security background and funding as reasons why Wells Fargo may become a customer, despite the danger of relying on a startup in todays economy.