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Miramar Systems Inc. in early next November will release an interim version of its Desktop DNA Enterprise Edition PC personality migration tool that adds support for Microsoft Office 2003.
The privately held Santa Barbara, Calif. firm, which has a number of partnerships with configuration or change management providers such as Novell Inc., Computer Associates International Inc. and Novadigm Inc. as well as a soon to be completed deal with Marimba Inc., quickly updated its migration tool to also enable auditing of a migration.
The work, done as a result of its deal with Novadigm signed in September, resulted in new a manifest log capability that “lets you know what we put down on a machine and where we put it,” described Greg Goodman, cofounder and vice president of product management at Miramar in Santa Barbara, Calif.
“The manifest log is an XML file that lets you see what files have been saved and the size of those files. We think it will also be used as data mining tool. You can search through [the files] to know the amount and kinds of data that on the desktop. An XML file is powerful. You can format it in any way, shape or form, and it lets you mark things to extract [data] in different ways,” Goodman added.
Desktop DNA Enterprise Edition Version 4.7, which automates migration of user preferences, data and settings, also adds a new DNA Options Editor tool that allows administrators to create or update custom configuration files without requiring XML expertise. The tool provides a help system that walks administrators through different options controls, simplifying the definition of system dependencies.
According to Michael Silver, vice president and research fellow at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, the maturity and completeness of Miramars desktop migration tools makes the company a technology leader in the desktop migration space.
“Miramar has a relatively mature product, full functionality and they have lots of relationships with configuration management vendors for enterprises who want to integrate data and settings migration along with configuration management. Its an interesting market that may well be in flux over the next few years as we see what the configuration management vendors do. Will they build their own, or will they acquire?” Silver noted.
Version 4.6 of the tool, which automated the process of transferring user profiles from Windows NT Server 4.0 domains to Windows Server 2003 Active Directory, was released in July.
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