ActionPacked Networks makes its device management software available for free, adds support for HP and Juniper equipment.
ActionPacked Networks offers free network device management software to help IT more easily configure access control lists, track traffic flow data and set quality of service metrics without depending solely on command line interface to manage Cisco and other routers.
Most network managers probably consider command-line interface a second language, but a network industry newcomer says its software – which the vendor is making available for free – could help even veteran IT operators abandon CLI for new capabilities that let create and edit complex QoS policies on Cisco devices more quickly and with fewer errors.
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ActionPacked Networks, a privately-held company based in Honolulu, Hawaii, has been stealthily working on its LiveAction platform for the past several years. This week the company intends to offer, for a limited time, free permanent licenses of its LiveAction 1.8 software. Dubbed the “TurboTax” for Cisco routers by the vendor, LiveAction makes managing multiple devices from Cisco and other vendors less time-consuming and less error-prone.
“For the past four years we have been dissecting Cisco routers to figure out a way to make them easier to use and more accessible in environments that are no conducive to efficient networking,” says Mike Downes, marketing director for ActionPacked Networks. “As a result of this work, we decided to create our own commercial product to take on Cisco and other vendor routers and solve the problem of network complexity and the fact that there are just too many things to track.”
ActionPacked Networks based its product on the premise that it is simply too difficult to manage multiple devices when required to type commands. By combining in-depth device intelligence with graphics, charts and wizard-like capabilities, LiveAction helps network managers monitor devices for potential problems, find fixes to the problem based on embedded knowledge and then validate that the applied solution did actually fix the problem, the vendor says.
The software installs on a standard desktop, laptop or server and can be used from anywhere on the network as long as the network administrator has password access to routers. It doesn’t require the network to be stopped to install, and it can be used for both troubleshooting a specific problem similar to products from competitors like Fluke Networks and for QoS configuration such as what Cisco offers with its CiscoWorks products. Downes says the software has embedded device knowledge, making it possible for network managers to access and configure information from the inside out of the devices – rather than looking at problems from an outside perspective only.
“We provide a very high level of visual awareness with our product,” Downes says. “We decided to go into the Cisco devices and make that information more easily accessible and make the interface easy to learn and use so network managers can work in real time on live networks.”
LiveAction is a single monolithic software platform on which license keys containing additional features will be available, depending on what a customer requests. The version being made available for free to customers in the U.S. and Canada until March 31, 2010, is the fully expandable platform worth an estimated $1,500, according to Downes.
ActionPacked Networks is unlocking a few key capabilities for the permanent license giveaway that is available for free for a limited time. For instance, the free version will offer network managers end-to-end NetFlow, jflow and sflow monitoring and analysis capabilities and includes the added support for HP and Juniper devices. The free version is available now for download here.
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