By Neal Weinberg
Network World, 5/11/98

Alameda Hospital's IT department has been searching in vain for a product that can track ``configurations of workstations, servers and network devices,'' says Mark Moran, director of IS for the Alameda, Calif.-based hospital. So far, he has found tools that address ``bits and pieces'' of his network and systems management needs, but none that offers integrated management and allow for proactive capacity and budget planning.

``I don't think anyone has what we're looking for yet,'' Moran says.

Those were the first two paragraphs of 1997's Network Management Survey story, published almost exactly one year ago. We recently checked back with Moran and found out he's still searching for the elusive product that can do it all.

``If there was a tool out there that really struck me hard, I would go to the CEO and say, ``I need this,' '' Moran says. But that hasn't happened.

Moran is not asking for the world. His network consists of 120 client stations supported by six servers running Novell, Inc.'s NetWare 3.12, although he is moving toward a mixed Net-Ware/Windows NT environment.

It's difficult for Moran to standardize on one desktop configuration because industry-specific medical applications for areas such as medical records, patient accounting and pharmacy each have particular requirements. And running a 24-hour operation makes it difficult for Moran to schedule maintenance and backups.

Given that, Moran says he's looking for five key features in a network management system:

• Asset management, including hardware inventory and software distribution.
• Network monitoring, including utilization by application and end user.
• Desktop management, including configuration, license metering and remote reboot features.
• Automated network documentation.
• The ability to manage Novell and Windows NT environments and 16-bit and 32-bit applications.

But if a workstation crashes, Moran finds out the hard way. ``We have to wait for someone to call us,'' he says.

The yearlong search left Moran so discouraged that at one point he asked himself, ``Should I wait or just give up?''

Today, Moran is leaning heavily toward the purchase of Intel Corp.'s LANDesk management suite.

He's confident LANDesk can handle asset management, desktop management and the mixed NetWare/NT environment. And he likes the fact that LANDesk will allow him to monitor and configure PCs remotely during off-hours. That requires the purchase of special network interface cards, but he says the overall price for the system is reasonable.

What Moran doesn't know yet is whether LANDesk can handle documentation and network monitoring to his satisfaction.

``It doesn't do everything '' Moran says of LANDesk, but ``something is better than nothing.''