Enigmatec this week is set to launch the second generation of its data center operations software that the company says will help IT managers more quickly identify and automatically resolve system performance problems.

The company is upgrading its flagship Execution Management System (EMS) software with better agent technology, an enhanced policy-creation tool and an operations-based user interface. The software detects system failures and load changes on servers, and can fix problems using preset policies, Enigmatec says.

EMS 2.0 uses distributed agents to monitor performance on data center systems, measure actual performance against preset thresholds and take action when performance degrades. It doesn't rely on a centralized management console to configure agents, take corrective action or store data. IT managers install the agents on managed systems and use a Web interface to create policies, configure agents and monitor performance. The agents can interact in a peer-to-peer networking fashion.

For example, a new agent installed on a server would instantly register itself with the closest neighbor agent and get updated with the policies already configured in the neighboring agent. The use of distributed agents that can work autonomously would lessen the amount of management traffic sent over a network. Also, systems administrators could still tap into machines equipped with agents if there was a network problem because agents don't rely on receiving intelligence or instruction from a centralized server.

"By putting the intelligence in the agent, Enigmatec is providing true distributed management capabilities," says Judith Hurwitz, president of Hurwitz Associates. She adds that EMS monitors performance against preset service-level thresholds, which expands the software's purpose beyond simple systems management to service management.

"They are discovering operational policies across systems and can automatically switch loads to meet SLAs," she says.

The privately held New York and London-based company was founded in April 2001 and has raised about $11 million in three rounds of venture funding. It has established partnerships with companies such as Intel, Sun and VMware, and is targeting large financial services firms as customers. The company declined to disclose customer names.