NetIQ launches automated management suite

NetIQ announces AppManager 7, an update to its flagship IT service management toolset

IT management software specialist and Attachmate subsidiary NetIQ has today unveiled a major update to its flagship AppManager suite that is designed to make it easier for firms to install and run the IT service management toolset.

The company said that AppManager 7 features greater levels of automation designed to deliver "zero-touch" remote deployment of agents and eliminate manual installation and upgrades of the suite. It also boasts automated detection of new platforms and applications, improved automated policy monitoring capabilities, IT policy exception management capabilities that make it easier for IT administrators to respond to unique requests, and enhanced IT service mapping and modelling capabilities.

David Mount, service management principal at NetIQ, said that the goal of the increased automation is to drive down the cost of running the AppManager suite. "A lot of customers are finding that service management tools can have significant management overheads that can negate much of the savings such suites deliver," he argued. "Our aim is to make it far easier to deploy and run this type of technology."

The company also claimed that the suite has broader platform coverage, offering support for a wide range of environments and applications, including VMware, ESX Server, Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server 2007, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Oracle Grid Computing, and Cisco and Nortel IP telephony solutions.

Mount said that the new features were in line with NetIQ's strategy of delivering integrated business service management capabilities rather than IT management tools. "We're seeing a shift in the industry from systems management to management of the whole infrastructure and the business service," he said. " Tools used to measure metrics like CPU and bandwidth utilisation but now the focus is on notifying people of the quality of the service and all the different components affecting it. Our aim is to provide a single pane of glass that allows users to view across all platforms and detect and resolve service issues far quicker."

The launch comes as Microsoft prepares to step up its push into the systems management market at this week's Management Summit in San Diego. The company is set to show off its new Operations Manager 2007 and midmarket-focused Essentials 2007 ahead of their launch later in the year, and will also debut its Configuration Manager 2007, Virtual Machine Manager and Data Protection Manager 2 suites.