Stories about: Intelliden

Network management has been a source of frustration for Cisco for years.

Enterprise Management Associates is back again after a year of absence, this time on a monthly basis. We've really missed your dialog and comments, and hopefully we've been missed as well. As before, this column will focus on network management trends as they fit into the bigger IT management landscape - focusing from time to time on application performance, or SLM versus BSM, or new approaches to asset management, or trends like CMDB adoption as they may affect the NOC.

The number of pure-play network change and configuration-management vendors decreased again as EMC announced it had purchased Voyence for an undisclosed amount.

BMC has closed a deal to acquire Emprisa Networks, equipping the management software maker with network device configuration technology that it will use to augment its IT process automation and business service management product suites.

Opsware Wednesday upgraded its management software with support for Cisco gear that the company says will help customers automate software updates and prevent configuration-related performance problems.

AlterPoint this week will release an expanded product suite that builds upon the company's network change and configuration management software to provide business analytics, compliance management and protection against security threats.

Security event management products have evolved from collecting logs to analyzing volumes of data and helping enterprises manage both network and security events. This week two vendors look to further expand their capabilities.

HP on Thursday announced it would release a network configuration management product based on technology the company has licensed from Voyence.

Configuration vendor Tripwire this week announced it had updated its enterprise management product to now support certain flavors of Oracle databases, which the company says will enable network managers to more easily account for changes made to the systems in compliance audits and governance reports.

Kim Jahnz doesn't like to brag, but she says that over the years she has mastered managing network and systems performance and availability at Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee. However, Jahnz knows she faces a bigger challenge in 2006.

Opsware last week unveiled software to help enterprise network managers automate the discovery and management of network devices.