Network management for the masses

Industry analysis by Beth Schultz, plus the latest news headlines.

When it comes to network management, cost used to be black and white, or I should say, outrageously expensive or free.

Companies such as BMC, CA, HP and IBM offered depth and breadth of functions in their software, but customers typically paid a high price for that technical expertise. And open source applications such as Nagios were developed to help those IT shops with smaller budgets also enjoy the benefits of management software -- yet those tools required network managers to have the expertise to deploy, configure and maintain the applications in house.

But in the past couple of years, more companies have come out to support the network management community with reasonably priced software applications or open source models with economically feasible support packages.

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When it comes to network management, cost used to be black and white, or I should say, outrageously expensive or free.

Companies such as BMC, CA, HP and IBM offered depth and breadth of functions in their software, but customers typically paid a high price for that technical expertise. And open source applications such as Nagios were developed to help those IT shops with smaller budgets also enjoy the benefits of management software -- yet those tools required network managers to have the expertise to deploy, configure and maintain the applications in house.

But in the past couple of years, more companies have come out to support the network management community with reasonably priced software applications or open source models with economically feasible support packages.

Take Spiceworks, for one. The start-up adopted a unique business model that makes it possible for customers to use Spiceworks' IT Desktop for free. The company, founded in January 2006 by former executives from management automation software company Motive, says the bulk of its revenue comes from the clickable ads featured in its IT Desktop console program. For users, that means they see a list of clickable ads regarding the subject they are monitoring, though more than three-quarters of the screen will still be devoted to the management program, the company says.

This week Spiceworks announced the availability of Spiceworks IT Desktop 1.6, which includes enhanced troubleshooting features for network managers looking to repair problems spotted by the software.

The software, free for download here and ideal for networks with up to 250 devices, includes capabilities to discover, inventory, monitor, track, report and now repair hardware and software running on the network, according to company executives.

To start, Spiceworks added a one-click remote control feature that will let IT Desktop users launch remote control sessions from within the Spiceworks console to other managed machines tapping existing software from Windows or VNC. The company also added support for more antivirus platforms including Norton, McAfee, Panda and CA.

"The premise behind our company and our product is bringing network management to the masses," says CEO Scott Abel. "With this release, we have really beefed up troubleshooting to help our customers simplify managing their networks."

Read more about infrastructure management in Network World's Infrastructure Management section.

Schultz is a longtime IT journalist. You can email her or find her here.