Altiris suite keeps an eye on net assets

ATLANTA - Management software maker Altiris will next month roll out an upgraded suite of tools designed to help users more efficiently track hardware and software assets across their networks.

Altiris will unveil Asset Mgmt Suite 5.6, which includes six stand-alone applications, at NetWorld+Interop and Comdex in Atlanta. Collecting data on application usage can show network managers if they purchased too many or too few licenses and help them plan for software migrations, Altiris says.

Without centralized asset management software, network administrators would have to walk from desktop to desktop polling the devices for usage and license data. With Altiris software, managers can discover the physical location of applications and track the usage through a Web-based management console.

One software product within the suite, the Application Metering Solution, can be customized by network managers to collect application usage data based on groups, time of day or type of application. The software tracks metrics such as CPU usage, memory usage and application run-time for specific applications.

That last feature is important to Sarah Simpson, lead LAN administrator for Maricopa County's Infrastructure Technology Center in Phoenix. Simpson says the application usage data she collects becomes more critical to the government organization her department supports. "We're held more accountable for what we buy, and for us, that's public knowledge," she says.

For example, Simpson uses data collected by Altiris products to decide if she needs to purchase more software licenses when vendor contracts come up for renewal. "When someone requests we purchase another high-dollar application, I can tell them, 'We already have five licenses on that application that we don't use,' and avoid the extra purchase," she says.

Altiris' Asset Mgmt Suite competes with products from Computer Associates and Peregrine, which recently acquired its competitor Remedy. A report from IDC says asset management software garnered $834 million in 2001, and the market is expected to grow to $1.3 billion by 2006.

With this release, Altiris also added features that will let customers access the data collected by three software applications via a centralized Web-based management console. Of the three applications upgraded with Web access, one tracks faxes, cell phones and pagers; the second maintains data related to software and equipment contracts; and the third incorporates inventory, contract and usage data to let network managers know how often equipment is used.

Customers install the server software on a Microsoft Windows NT or 2000 Server. The server software works as the management console from which customers push the client software out to devices to be managed. The different applications request and collect usage data from hardware and software assets, and store it in a Microsoft SQL Server data repository. Altiris provides more than 150 reports, and users can create customized reports. The company says it plans to add Unix and Macintosh support in its products by year-end.

Altiris' Asset Mgmt Suite will be available immediately following its announcement at Interop. The suite costs $58 per node when purchased for between 10 and 99 nodes. Volume discounts are available.

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