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Desktop management company Reflectent Software Inc. on Wednesday will roll out the latest release of EdgeSight, a tool that emphasizes end-user availability and performance management for Windows desktops or laptops.
The Lowell, Mass., company, which sees its software as a complement to software distribution and patch management products such as Microsoft Corp.s Systems Management Server, as well as desktop configuration management products such as ones from Altiris, targets larger enterprises looking to manage 2,000 desktops or more. It has generated a handful of well-known customers such as Morgan Stanley and Healthcare Partners.
“We add intelligence to those functions—give real-time awareness on how well systems are performing,” said Howie Markson, vice president of product marketing at Reflectent Software. “If there is a problem, we tell you what it is, and for remediation, youd go to a patch management or software distribution tool to remedy the problem.”
The tool stores data about what was happening in a monitored desktop prior to a problem, providing troubleshooting and diagnostic capabilities. Release 3.0 provides insight into the impact planned changes will have on the stability of end-user desktops. The new Impact Analysis feature can tell operators what would happen with existing applications if they were to change a Dynamic Link Library on desktops to accommodate a new patch or software upgrade.
“We can tell which applications are impacted, which users are impacted and which business functions are impacted prior to making the change. You can use that to factor into your process for new deployment what QA testing to do to reduce the risk,” said Markson.
The tools ability to collect run-time data also allows operators to determine how effective deployed patches are after a change is made.
In addition, a new migration analysis feature allows users to make comparisons of how well systems run before and after migrating desktops to a new operating system release. “You can see if things are getting better or worse, and if theres an issue, you can drill down to see what they are before problems become pervasive,” Markson said.
The new release, rich in new features, gains an active monitoring component, along with existing passive monitoring, to check the availability of critical resources.
Release 3.0, available now, also adds integration with Microsofts Active Directory. It is priced at $50,000 per server and $50 per client. A single server can support as many as 5,000 clients.