XOsoft Inc. this week is rolling out software tailored to help enterprise customers reduce complexity and the possibility of downtime surrounding migrations and maintenance of Microsoft Corp.s Exchange Server.
XOsofts InMotion automates single or multiple Exchange Server upgrades, configuration consistency, and migration duties. Available now, the product will support Microsoft SQL Server databases next year and will provide Oracle Corp. database support in the future as well, said officials of the Waltham, Mass., company.
For Exchange Server customers such as Carl Mayer, president and CEO of RBC Product Development Inc., heavy reliance on Exchange can become dangerous territory in the event of an unexpected failure.
“We, like a lot of people, run Exchange Server as a groupware package. We use it for calendaring, e-mail, and managing tasks and overall integration,” said Mayer in Lenexa, Kan. “You really cant afford [Exchange] to go down when its the cornerstone of your organization. We are going to be one unhappy group if we lose everything.”
RBC Product Development makes medical products for use in homes and hospitals. Mayer said XOsofts wizard-based InMotion tool has proved invaluable for correcting his companys Exchange Server 2000 software hiccups.
“We cant afford to have four Microsoft server boxes that are all redundant for one another, so we have to get by with one and a hot backup,” he said. “To do that, you have to be creative and have great third-party tools like this.”
InMotions Exchange productivity and simplification features include online mailbox moves, bulk mailbox moves, automation of target server configuration and the ability to automatically check configuration consistency to reduce manual errors.
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InMotion pricing is based on four license types: project, subscription, perpetual and evaluation, said XOsoft officials.
For its part, XOsoft competitor NSI Software Inc. is helping channel partners and ISVs enhance their disaster recovery capabilities through the companys new DTSP (Double-Take Solutions Program). The program offers a technical framework to help OEMs of storage, backup and restore, and ILM (information lifecycle management) products build their own beefed-up data protection offerings, said officials of NSI, in Southboro, Mass.
Through DTSP, companies can develop a Web-based interface to remotely manage NSIs Double-Take platform minus a local client, use a set of APIs to integrate Double-Take into existing platforms and applications, and use their own native management tools to monitor Double-Take activities.
In terms of Exchange management, NSI officials said DTSP will provide a set of wizards to simplify configuration and verify how an existing technology will work with different disaster recovery tools and customizations.
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