The scoop on the upcoming fall IT product lineup.
Just as TV viewers are getting a taste of the networks’ new fall lineups, so will IT execs and other industry watchers this week at DemoFall 2005, where 70 of the most- promising products and services will be unveiled.
DemoFall Preview: Cool stuff for end users
It’s no surprise that among the top bets are start-ups pitching offerings that deal with security. From fending off malware to protecting corporate documents, DemoFall demonstrators are trying to help organizations protect their precious assets. Also on tap are companies debuting wares that ease the burden on IT groups.
Our favorites are listed over the next few pages – a complete list of the companies showing new technologies at the show is available at www.demo.com.
THE SHIELD
Product: Vulnerability Protection Suite Determina Available now, about $750 per server.
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Details: “Every CXO is forced into a trade-off between two very important things: business disruption and boosting security,” says Nand Mulchandani, vice president of marketing and business development at Determina.
Viruses such as the recent Zotob worm force IT groups to take down infrastructure for patches and other updates, Mulchandani says. “You have to react to every security threat that’s coming out. If you’re responsible for thousands of PCs, you’re in a world of hurt,” he says. The time it takes to test and circulate patches only worsens the situation.
The Vulnerability Protection Suite includes the Determina Memory Firewall and LiveShield. The software lets IT managers rapidly create a shield around vulnerable code. For example, if Microsoft announces a problem with Internet Explorer, IT groups can introduce a barrier to the affected code into the server while it is still running and without rebooting.
24 (BY 7)
Product: Application Continuity Appliance Teneros Available now, $15,000 for appliance and $3,750 annual service fee.
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Details: “Companies have invested in Microsoft infrastructure and they need to keep end users of those mission-critical applications up and running,” says Steve Lewis, president and CEO of Teneros. He says IT groups at smaller companies don’t have either the IT staff or the budget to assure always-on mission critical applications
like e-mail. Teneros’ appliance drops into the network with a simple 10 minute install, requires no network reconfiguration of Exchange server modifications, needs no ongoing in-house maintenance, and provides instant-on, non-stop 24 X 7 Exchange e-mail continuity for end users during either planned or unplanned Exchange server downtime.
I (ANTI-)SPY
Product: Active Malware Defense Technology, Version 2.0 Sana Security Early 2006
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Details: Sana Security thinks a lot about business continuity. Matthew Williamson, senior research scientist at the start-up, says today’s security tools jeopardize business continuity because they rely on known signatures to stop worms. If a signature is not recognized, then IT groups must wait for a signature to be created and this can cause network disruptions.
“Worms are designed stealthily, and it can take a long time to get a signature,” Williamson says. He says once signatures are detected, scanning can take a large chunk of time and that affects the productivity of end users.
Active Malware Defense Technology Version 2.0 uses generic detection to uncover malicious code, Trojans, backdoors and spyware. The software looks at the behavior of running programs, including key logger installs and whether code is being hidden from the user. If something malicious is detected, the software removes it without human involvement.
WIZARDS AND WEB SITES
Product: Portals for Mortals iCentera Now available, $30 to $90 per user, with hosting from Level 3.
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Details: “IT would rather be involved in rolling out a new server, not forcing a new file to the server,” says Craig Nelson, CEO of iCentera. The company developed Portals for Mortals, a software suite that lets business units develop dynamic Web sites without the involvement of IT. Nelson says marketing teams can use the service to customize sites around marketing campaigns, interact with customers and create a community for employees. The wizard-driven tool supports document loading, images and interactive content.
CLEAN SWEEP
Product: Hygiene Workshare Available in beta later this year. No pricing yet.
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Details: Document transfers are beginning to concern IT groups as a security risk. “Every day over a hundred million documents are sent over e-mail, but these documents are ‘dirty’ with hidden and visible risks, including private information about customers and consumers,” says Ken Rutsky, executive vice president at Workshare. “Companies have to find a way to keep this information from leaking without disrupting the flow of business.”
Workshare will roll out its Hygiene application (client and server software), which uses policies to spot infractions in hidden and visible text. For instance, metadata or information held in “track changes” that compromise corporate security can be filtered or fixed based on internal policy. The tool also features identity-based routing and auditing so organizations can ensure that their compliance mandates are being followed. Compliance officers can utilize a dashboard to see the top alert triggers among senders and documents.
FAST LANE
Product: ATG Service Suite Art Technology Group Now available, pricing not yet released.
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Details: Trying to serve customers from various silos is difficult for companies. IT groups struggle to link the multiple repositories so that customer service representatives have instant access to information.
The Art Technology Group (ATG) is unveiling its Service Suite to streamline the retrieval of customer information. The software (server software and Web agent client) features the company’s Wisdom technology, which allows for real-time personalization, contextualized delivery of content and rapid resolution of questions for customers. For instance, if a valued customer is surfing a Web site, he might get a quicker response time to his question than a first-time visitor. He also might get different offers for additional products and services than other customers.
Erik Hille, director of product marketing at ATG, says the key is capturing the context of the customer interactions with either the Web site or call center. Improving response time lowers traditionally high service costs and increases cross-channel activity between product lines. Having detailed information about customers and their product choices readily available also reduce training time for new customer representatives, he says.
I’M TELLING
Product: Barracuda IM Firewall Barracuda Networks Available in beta soon.
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Details: Barracuda Networks uses policies to gain a grasp on corporate instant messaging. The Barracuda IM Firewall lets IT groups encrypt, filter and log instant messages from public clients such as Yahoo, AOL and MSN.
The software also lets companies set policies regarding identity management, keyword notification and compliance breaches. For instance, the firewall can detect when a user chooses a screen name that is inappropriate or sends out confidential information.Barracuda IM Firewall, which works with other anti-virus, anti-spam and spyware programs, lets companies make alliances with their clients and partners for the safe use of IM.
WEB IMPROVEMENT
Product: eXamine Enterprise Kenai Systems Now available for download.
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Details: For some companies, the security concern is being shifted to the Web. As more applications are ported to Web services for a larger and more remote audience, IT groups are worried that the threat to back-end systems is greater.
Kenai’s eXamine Enterprise software lets engineers, developers, security specialists and IT groups test their Web applications, including Web Service Definition Language files, against vulnerabilities.
“Developers, security gurus and quality assurance folks are usually in their own silos. Developers will select their own Web service environment without regard to whether that’s safe for the rest of the enterprise,” says Jack Quinnell, CTO at the company.
EXamine Enterprise lets security teams develop baseline policies and then developers can validate Web services against those specific policies and general vulnerability profiles. Companies also can create logs and reports on their Web services for compliance and regulatory mandates.
POLICY SQUAD
Product: mx2020 console IntelliReach Pricing and availability not yet released.
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Details: “Messaging is in chaos,” says Vicki Brown, vice president of marketing at IntelliReach. “IT managers have to do reporting, monitor for spam and viruses, and archive and storage for compliance.”
IntelliReach aims to ease this burden by tying together all these functions via policy management. Using a central console, called the mx2020, IT managers can dictate how to handle virus-laden messages, what disclaimers are placed on selected users’ outgoing e-mail and what messages should be encrypted.
Companies can ensure that profanity, corporate data and other critical factors are not putting them in jeopardy by leaving the network. Users also can manage their own messages, including full text searches, viewing quarantined e-mail and sorting archives. Human resources and legal departments can set and control policies throughout the organizations.
GREEN ACRES
Product: Green Array Platform Green Array Available for Mac, Windows and Linux. Pricing not yet released.
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Details: One of the hottest concepts in industry today is tracking corporate performance management. At many companies, IT has to create tools that help companies monitor the success of projects. Green Array is releasing a tool that lets executives and administrators companywide take ownership of this effort.
The Green Array Platform lets organizations track, via an easy-to-use “Outlook-like” dashboard, corporate performance, business unit performance and project performance.
Companies can gather teams, do surveys, readjust benchmark timelines and allot budget resources using the Green Array tool.
“The business side can lead the charge instead of IT needing to lead the way,” says Miles Walsh, founder and CEO of the company.
NETWORK CONFIDENTIAL
Product: Secure LAN Controller
Company: ConSentry Networks
Premieres: Currently in beta, pricing not yet available.
Details: While some companies focus on shoring up the desktop and applications, ConSentry Networks is aiming straight for the core infrastructure.
“Companies looking to secure their networks buy new switches, new firewalls, new servers. By the time they’re done, they’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a ton of products with a ton of complexity,” says Faizel Lakhani, vice president of marketing at the start-up.
He says that all this technology bogs down networks and has an adverse affect on users. “The network does need to become user-aware and application-aware and needs to do deep inspection and track users, but it also has to be high-performance and easy to use,” he says.
The Secure LAN Controller is a 10G Ethernet device that sits between access switches and core switches to provide user-based authentication. The Secure LAN Controller uses policies matched to a user’s name and IP and media access control addresses to limit network and application access.
Gittlen is a freelance technology editor. She can be reached at sgittlen@charter.net.
