Quest beefs up Windows 2003 Server skills with Aelita buy

Hard on the heels of the acquisition of Small Wonders by ScriptLogic, which I told you about last time, comes news of an even bigger merger of two very well known providers of tools for both Windows servers and Active Directory. Quest Software announced late last month that it is buying Aelita Software. Both companies have been mentioned in this and in the Identity Management newsletter on a number of different occasions.

Quest first surfaced in this newsletter in mid-2000 when it purchased Fastlane Technologies, provider of migration tools for Windows 2000 and Active Directory. As late as last summer, I was advocating that you look at the Fastlane suite from Quest if you were still faced with migrating to Active Directory. Well, that was “as late as” until you get to the end of this newsletter.

Aelita is perhaps best known for its Controlled Migration Suite of tools, which I touted to you last summer. The suite is designed as a “soup-to-nuts” all-inclusive migration package scalable to organizations of all sizes.

So if Quest already has the Fastlane suite of migration tools, why would it also want the CMS suite of migration tools?

It probably doesn’t. What Quest does want, I think, is Aelita’s Windows management expertise as it seeks to bring its products up to speed for Windows 2003 Server, as well as the next generation of Windows server due in a couple of years. In fact, the two companies have announced that their respective current product lines would continue (and continue to be developed) for the foreseeable future as they map out plans for new, innovative and exciting products in the years to come.

Aelita CEO Ratmir Timashev will take over the reins of Quest’s Microsoft Windows related business unit, which bodes well for the future products of the division since he’s a stickler for both “getting it right” and “making it useful.” There’s very little fluff in an Aelita product, which is generally a densely packed bundle of tools that makes every Windows network manager’s job a lot easier. We’ll be watching, impatiently, to see what fruits are borne by this collaboration.

By the way, if you’re still dithering about with your migration project, you’ll notice that this merger reduces by one the number of companies that can provide the tools you need. Fewer outlets normally mean higher prices. Be warned and act accordingly.