Applications or hardware: Pick your mgmt. tool

Semiconductor company Smith & Associates is bent on getting a better handle on its network resources, recognizing that it just can't afford to keep adding servers every time LAN traffic spikes.

In exploring its options, the Houston company has determined that a different network management strategy was in order. But instead of taking the conventional path of swapping its old management software for new, the company is looking to replace its software with . . . hardware.

"We need a product that offers some automation and doesn't require my staff to be in front of it 24-7," says Bob Ackerley, president and co-founder of the semiconductor maker. The company is leaning toward start-up Vieo, which released its multifunction management appliance into beta tests last week. The box would replace software from BMC Software and Peregrine Systems, which, while working as advertised, no longer fit Smith & Associates' needs in managing about 22 Unix and Windows servers in its data center.

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Semiconductor company Smith & Associates is bent on getting a better handle on its network resources, recognizing that it just can't afford to keep adding servers every time LAN traffic spikes.

In exploring its options, the Houston company has determined that a different network management strategy was in order. But instead of taking the conventional path of swapping its old management software for new, the company is looking to replace its software with . . . hardware.

"We need a product that offers some automation and doesn't require my staff to be in front of it 24-7," says Bob Ackerley, president and co-founder of the semiconductor maker. The company is leaning toward start-up Vieo, which released its multifunction management appliance into beta tests last week. The box would replace software from BMC Software and Peregrine Systems, which, while working as advertised, no longer fit Smith & Associates' needs in managing about 22 Unix and Windows servers in its data center.

The debate over whether to manage networks via software or hardware - or some combination of the two - is an increasingly common one as IT budgets remain tight and a new breed of management appliances hits the market from a mix of newcomers and more established vendors such as Gold Wire, Oculan and SilverBack.

The products come with a host of management capabilities, including network discovery, fault management, security management and performance monitoring. While management software that runs on general-purpose hardware is tried-and-true, if often expensive and complicated, management appliances have the advantages of simplicity and aggressive pricing.

"Pricing is key to the management appliance model," says Glenn O'Donnell, research director at Meta Group. "Dedicated devices must be priced low enough to offer ROI within six months."

Appliances are in the $1,000 to $30,000 range, whereas management software installations can run into hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

But lower prices often come fewer features and less scalability (Gold Wire's Formulator configuration management box, for example, maxes out at about 3,000 managed nodes). For this reason, appliances are seen by many as the purview of small to midsize companies with less-demanding IT needs.

Appliance vendors configure the processing power in their boxes to work specifically with their management software. They claim this helps avoid the sort of CPU meltdown general-purpose servers are vulnerable to when trying to juggle events, alerts and non-management applications.

"The big advantage of the packaged system is you get a bounded, plug-and-play solution. It removes the necessity of the staff having to do all of the run-of-the-mill management tasks," says Rich Ptak, principal of consulting firm Ptak Associates.

Still, appliances make up a fairly small chunk of the overall management product market - 10%, according to consulting firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). This number includes earlier management appliances, such as packet shapers, that tend to focus on one task.