Compuware Corp. last week launched its own rebranding campaign for its series of acquired management tools and introduced a major release of its application performance management suite.
Compuware is kicking off its rebranding effort on the heels of rival Computer Associates International Inc.s own branding campaign. Among CAs new brands is the ADvantage product line, while Compuware is launching its Vantage brand. Both vendors hope to provide a clearer picture of what they have to offer.
“Timing is everything,” said Compuware user Philip Hoffer, in reference to the dueling branding campaigns. “I think theres a lot of customers who are probably confused.”
“When you start acquiring software, it tends to muddy the water,” added Hoffer, senior manager of global advanced technologies at J.D. Edwards & Co., in Denver.
Compuwares latest release of its EcoSystems application performance suite, rebranded Vantage, pulls together new options and integration of separate tools that are intended to give a clearer picture of performance and bandwidth utilization.
Compuware integrated its Interval Pro response time testing software with QARun application testing tools to create a new offering that provides both passive monitoring of response times from an end station and active monitoring. The new ClientVantage software includes diagnostic functions in a new active monitoring agent. The agent, installed on end-user desktops or on dedicated systems set up at chosen locations, can be used to monitor service levels.
“You can set up a machine to do simulated transactions and take measurements at certain, regular intervals for continuous monitoring. It gets the real metric on the service levels you are delivering to that location,” said John Williams, Compuwares director of product management for the Vantage line, in Farmington Hills, Mich.
The diagnostic functions in the active agent allow it to continuously capture packets. Packets that exceed set performance thresholds can be examined later to pinpoint the sources of performance problems.
A central control server aggregates measurements taken and provides service-level reporting. The central console is based on Microsoft Corp.s Windows NT or Windows 2000. The agents can run on any Windows platform.
ClientVantage works with the suites NetworkVantage and ServerVantage applications to provide comprehensive application monitoring and troubleshooting as well as service-level management.
Compuware integrated the three tools under a new Web-based console. The VantageView Web console shows a common application view for all the functions involved in application performance analysis and problem resolution.