Looking to offer users new tools to manage complex data center technologies, a crop of network and systems management start-ups has garnered more than $100 million from venture capitalists this year.

Newcomers are devising ways to address emerging management challenges such as Web services, IP-based applications and security. Start-ups such as Covergence, a maker of applications management software for real-time IP communications, and Vericept, which provides compliance and content control technology, this year have raked in $16 million and $12.5 million in venture capital funding, respectively. GroundWork, which built its IT management software on open source technology, raised $11.5 million, while Splunk Technology and Cittio , also providing IT infrastructure-monitoring tools, separately garnered $5 million and $3.5 million.

Investments in network companies might not be on par with pre-dot-com spending - $10 billion was invested in 2004 (according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers' survey compared with $59 billion in 2000 - but venture capitalists are taking notice of start-ups promising to better manage, optimize and secure corporate networks. Specifically, companies taking on application and security management or addressing emerging technologies such as Web services or VoIP will win venture capital dollars.

"IT organizations are putting in place new application computing architectures," says Peter Solvik, managing director at investment firm Sigma Partners. "In turn, they have got to have tools that enable them to reduce the cost and complexity of managing these multi-layered networks."

Solvik's firm has invested in upstarts such as Digital Fuel, a maker of outsourced services governance software that garnered $20 million in funding earlier this year. He says the uptake in funding is directly tied to customer demand for products that will help manage disruptive technologies. Other companies, such as Covergence and Qovia, which in 2004 brought in more than $16 million in venture funding, promise to help IT departments manage IP-based applications on data networks.

"Specialized areas such as voice, Web services, IT governance, security management and application mapping are challenging enterprises now, and the incumbent vendors can't innovate fast enough for leading-edge companies," Solvik says.