Start-up launches Java-based mgmt. system

By Jim Duffy
Network World, 5/4/98

Santa Clara, Calif. - Start-up Manage.Com believes it has a better way of managing intranets using the World Wide Web.

The company is the latest in a series of Web-based management newcomers following in the tracks of NextPoint Networks, Inc. and Proactive Networks (NW, April 13, page 23). And like its predecessors, Manage.Com thinks the best way to manage networks based on Internet technologies is to use Internet technologies.

But Manage.Com claims its FrontLine Manager offering is different - something customers will get to see for themselves this week at NetWorld+ Interop 98.

The Manage.Com product handles day-to-day operational management tasks, such as responding immediately to alerts, rather than "back-end" management, such as device reconfiguration and establishing security policies.

The product consists of a Web interface, a management server that runs on Windows NT or Solaris, and Java-based management agents.

The graphical user interface, which initially runs on Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer, provides views of applications, network services, servers, desktops and other devices such as hubs and switches. The server supports an object database that dynamically represents network status and device relationships. The agents, which can run on any managed device that supports a Java Virtual Machine, provide dynamic resource status monitoring and are easily upgradable.

FrontLine Manager also supports standard SNMP agents and proprietary Management Information Bases from 3Com Corp., Bay Networks, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc. and Cabletron Systems, Inc. A single copy of FrontLine Manager supports 255 managed devices.

Taking full advantage

Users said FrontLine Manager shows promise but customers will have to reinstrument their networks with Manage.Com's Java agents to take full advantage of the Manage.Com product. Users also said vendor-specific tools will still be needed to handle more sophisticated management tasks.

"[FrontLine Manager] will make sure [Domain Name Service] is running, make sure your local routers are running and check the throughput on the line," said Tom Reinsel, managing partner and principal architect at Pepperweed Consulting, in Chicago. "At this point, it's a surface scratch. Getting deeper down into what's really going on in the network . . . that needs to evolve."

Manage.Com's software costs $2,995. It will ship May 31.

Manage.Com was founded in 1995, initially as a consulting firm. Company founder and CEO Jay Parekh previously was senior engineering manager at Bay and was involved in managing product development for the Optivity management product. Manage.Com received $3.5 million in venture capital funding about a year ago from U.S. Venture Partners, of Menlo Park, Calif.

Manage.Com: (408) 567-9990