A pair of vendors this week separately plan to announce products designed to help automate the oversight of constantly changing server networks.

Heroix is set to release its Longitude systems management package, while Opsware issues Version 5.1 of its Server Automation Systems (SAS) package.

"Management tools used to be built on the assumption that the systems and applications weren't going to change much," says Jasmine Noel, principal analyst at Ptak, Noel & Associates.

"Now changes are constant and management tools must automatically handle those changes in more advanced environments such as [Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition], .Net" or services-oriented architectures, she says.

In unveiling Longitude, Heroix abandons its previous use of management agents and replaces it with automated performance monitoring across server platforms, operating systems and applications . The software is installed on a dedicated server and makes use of industry-standard APIs to collect data from managed machines.

Tony Castaldo, IT manager at Boston Sand and Gravel, says Longitude's status dashboard quickly tells him if any of the 20 or so servers scattered across New England need attention.

He installed the product a few months ago after ruling out Ipswitch's WhatsUp Gold because of a lengthier deployment time. He says with Longitude, he can better plan his workday around server health across distributed locations.

"We are short-staffed in the IT department, so I have the product set up to let me know ahead of time of upcoming problems," Castaldo says. "It's crucial for me to know quickly where I stand."

The product can be used to monitor more than 250 performance metrics and generate 125 reports on system health. IT managers set up role-based administration and log on to the Web-based interface from any location to check performance with a user ID and password.

The lack of agents could limit the amount of remote-control or remediation capabilities an IT manager would have over a machine, Noel says, but the software can provide access to performance statistics that would help resolve problems.

Longitude costs $300 to $600 per server, depending on the platforms and operating systems monitored. Site licenses for J2EE users cost about $3,000.