Myriad network management vendors this week will introduce new and updated products designed to make managing everything from security to routers to VoIP more efficient. .

EMC Smarts

EMC Smarts this week will bring new features in two core offerings, IP Availability Manager 7.0 and Service Assurance Manager (SAM) 7.0. The IP Availability Manager and SAM software applications, which typically make up the foundation of a Smarts deployment in customer networks, provide root cause analysis of network connectivity layers and perform topology discovery and correlation, respectively.

EMC enhanced both security and network features in the updates of the Smarts software applications. For instance, the updated releases supports SNMPv3 authentication for traps and provides full encryption of packets as well as full encryption and authentication for polling and discovery. The addition of SNMPv3 support is important because large enterprise, especially those adhering to federal standards, must authenticate scripts at a secure level to verify who is sending an alert and to make sure the information is from a trusted source. Using SNMPv3 enables encryption, which allows the information to remain confidential and private, EMC says.

The company also added a feature dubbed "IP tagging" that the company says will help customers better handle overlapping IP addresses in IP and MPLS environments.

EMC -- which acquired Smarts in 2005 -- continues to build upon the network management company's technology. Smarts software, which doesn't rely upon distributed agents, uses modeling technology to inventory network elements and record how they interact across the environment. The software uses Smarts' Codebook Correlation analytics engine as well as its own version of the Common Information Model (CIM) design to show the relationship between routing and the infrastructure. Smarts' CIM models the routing protocol domain, and the correlation engine identifies the source of alarms generated in the domain.

EMC Smarts competes with HP's OpenView software, CA's Concord and Aprisma technologies, and IBM's acquired Micromuse products.

The new versions are set to be generally available later this month, and EMC offers an Express Pack starter kit, which includes IP Availability Manager and SAM, for $30,000 for a 50-device license.