BY JEFF CARUSO
Few vendors have championed Web-based management like Manage.Com.
The company has ridden the wave of excitement surrounding Web technology, creating software that lets net managers view the layout of their networks on a Web browser from any point on the network.
Manage.Com's FrontLine Manager is aimed at mid-size companies at which users have outgrown simple LAN management, yet don't require something as complex and expensive as major network and systems management platforms. FrontLine Manager is striking a chord with some users.
"A lot of the software we had in the past was hard to use," says Robert Zeien, a network engineer at Stanford University Medical Center and an early user of FrontLine Manager.
The medical center tried Hewlett-Packard's OpenView, Cabletron's Spectrum and others. FrontLine Manager gave the network managers the information they needed quickly, Zeien says.
Manage.Com is focusing on tools for "generalists, rather than specialists," says John McConnell, president of McConnell Associates in Boulder, Colo. Because the company's software has built-in intelligence, it can help network managers find problems faster.
E-problems ahead
While simplified, Web-based network management was a good first step, Manage.Com
is trying to tackle what it sees as the next big obstacle.
"The bigger issue is taking Web management to companies doing e-business," says Bob Quillan, vice president of marketing at the company.
Managing a company's internal network is something a lot of software packages can do, he points out. The next step is to manage not just a company's intranet, but also its extranet as well. When partner companies and customers are included, the management problem becomes more complex, and security and billing issues arise, Quillan says.
Now the company's challenge is to develop tools for managing electronic businesses quickly - as quickly as companies are adopting e-business techniques, he says.
Few vendors have championed Web-based management like Manage.Com.
The company has ridden the wave of excitement surrounding Web technology, creating software that lets net managers view the layout of their networks on a Web browser from any point on the network.
Manage.Com's FrontLine Manager is aimed at mid-size companies at which users have outgrown simple LAN management, yet don't require something as complex and expensive as major network and systems management platforms. FrontLine Manager is striking a chord with some users.
"A lot of the software we had in the past was hard to use," says Robert Zeien, a network engineer at Stanford University Medical Center and an early user of FrontLine Manager.
The medical center tried Hewlett-Packard's OpenView, Cabletron's Spectrum and others. FrontLine Manager gave the network managers the information they needed quickly, Zeien says.
Manage.Com is focusing on tools for "generalists, rather than specialists," says John McConnell, president of McConnell Associates in Boulder, Colo. Because the company's software has built-in intelligence, it can help network managers find problems faster.
E-problems ahead
While simplified, Web-based network management was a good first step, Manage.Com
is trying to tackle what it sees as the next big obstacle.
"The bigger issue is taking Web management to companies doing e-business," says Bob Quillan, vice president of marketing at the company.
Managing a company's internal network is something a lot of software packages can do, he points out. The next step is to manage not just a company's intranet, but also its extranet as well. When partner companies and customers are included, the management problem becomes more complex, and security and billing issues arise, Quillan says.
Now the company's challenge is to develop tools for managing electronic businesses quickly - as quickly as companies are adopting e-business techniques, he says.