SNMP Research bolsters management package security

ATLANTA - SNMP Research International this week will release a network management product the company says will be more secure and easier to use than the competition because it takes full advantage of the latest version of SNMP.

At NetWorld+Interop 2000, the firm will premiere EnterPol, software companies can use to manage networks, systems, applications and services.

SNMP Research introduced its SecureIntelligence product family, which includes CIAgent and EnterPol, at Interop in Las Vegas earlier this year, but EnterPol beta testing had not been completed. CIAgent is an SNMP agent for managing open systems and servers, such as Web, print or file servers.

Chief Technology Officer Jeff Case, who is also one of the SNMP standard's authors, says EnterPol offers network administrators a management environment in which they can manage an SNMP Version 3 network with SNMP Version 3 software. He says his company wanted to release a product that removed the barriers for SNMP Version 3 adoption.

"[SNMP Version 2] had problems because it was hard for a customer to just deploy and use [SNMP Version 2 products]," Case says. "We needed to get tools to make it easier for them." The main difference between this offering and other network management tools, Case says, is that "it is using secure SNMP Version 3, while it continues to support SNMP Version 1 and SNMP Version 2."

EnterPol has two components: a software manager and agents. The manager component sits on the server devoted to network management, and the agents are installed on the network's SNMP-managed devices. When an agent detects unusual network behavior, it notifies the software manager. Configurations for polling between the software manager and the agents is preset, but network administrators can adjust them. The software also lets administrators send software updates and the like simultaneously from one console to all agents on the network.

"The key differentiator of EnterPol is the security," Case says. EnterPol supports SNMP Version 3, which features data encryption and other advanced security support.

EnterPol runs on 32- and 64-bit Solaris 2.6 and 2.7, and will be available after Interop. Pricing for EnterPol begins at $5,000. The company is working on Windows NT and Linux versions of the product.

SNMP Research: www.snmp.com