Startup PerformanceIT Inc. is challenging the Big Four enterprise management providers with a new release of its integrated network, system and application management software, but at least one major player has a counterchallenge in the works.
Atlanta-based PerformanceIT, which has seen some success with midsize enterprises thanks to lower costs and ease of installation, will launch Version 3.1 of its ProIT suite. Meanwhile, Houston-based BMC Software Inc. is preparing function-specific modules for its Patrol Express midmarket offering, and Dell Inc., of Round Rock, Texas, as a result of its alliance with BMC, has just released Patrol Express Server, the first PowerEdge servers preloaded with Patrol Express, an agentless monitoring and performance tuning tool. Patrol Express Server is bundled with configuration support and administrative training, according to BMC officials.
Over the next year, BMC also intends to add more members to the Patrol Express family that individually provide service-level monitoring, application-performance monitoring and service-impact management.
PerformanceIT, for its part, extended ProIT support to include IBMs AIX Version 5.x running on IBM pSeries servers. The latest release also adds an Impact Analyzer that depicts network components and their effect on traffic. Impact Analyzer works with ProITs root-cause-analysis tool and can be linked to the tools automated alarm function.
With Impact, PerformanceIT is jumping on a crowded bandwagon, said user Scott Kressner, CIO at Rush Enterprises Inc., in New Braunfels, Texas. “That is really application performance from a user perspective. Thats been the panacea everybodys been talking about for five years,” Kressner said. He said hes more impressed with the ease of daily SLA (service-level agreement) reporting the tool offers and the comprehensive management of environments provided through the suites Management Packs.
ProIT consist of the Management Center Web server, which provides a Web front end and links to a Management Server Engine. Relay components provide centralized monitoring using multiple methods, including SNMP polling. ProIT 3.1, available now, also adds a tool that lets users monitor WAN link status and performance graphically.
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