ORLANDO -- Computer Associates Monday debuted two products aimed to carry its Unicenter network and systems management software into the wireless world.
At its annual CA World user conference being held this week, CA introduced Unicenter Wireless Network Management (WNM), software to manage wireless networks, and Unicenter Mobile Device Management (MDM), which lets network administrators monitor mobile and handheld devices as though they were part of the wired net.
CA Chief Technology Officer Yogesh Gupta said with its new software as well as existing products, CA will "manage all the things that connect things wirelessly, manage the mobile and wireless devices, and manage the WAN along with the LAN."
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Robert Perkins, chief information officer for Key3Media Events, said his company will be using the wireless network management software to run the upcoming NetWorld+Interop 2002 IT conference in Las Vegas between May 5 and 10. He said his company has to set up 12,000 nodes to be managed in four days for that one event and that adding Unicenter WNM will allow his staff to automatically discover all the elements of the wireless LAN.
"It connects all the stuff and helps us manage and secure the environment for people using the network at the show," Perkins said.
Unicenter WNM would work alongside Unicenter Network and Systems Management, Gupta said, discovering wireless network devices, access points and wireless users on a corporate WAN as well as LAN.
Because security concerns increase with wireless networks, CA built intrusion-detection software into the wireless network management product. This way only authorized users can gain access to a company's wireless resources, and if a rogue user attempts to tie into a wireless net, Unicenter WNM would not allow it.
Unicenter WNM discovers what's on a wireless network, gives users a topology and configuration map of those elements, and manages the network for availability. The software collects information from the devices on the network and delivers it, along with events and alerts, to a central management console.
Unicenter MDM puts a different take on managing mobile devices. It works more closely with Unicenter Service Desk and Asset Management software in that it performs software delivery and configurations to mobile devices. It also performs asset management on the devices as well as sets up any antivirus software users may need. And Unicenter MDM performs device identification and lockdown when necessary. Network managers can also track the performance of the wired network and the mobile devices and calculate service levels using this tool in conjunction with other Unicenter products, like Unicenter Service Level Management.
The new wireless and mobile additions to the Unicenter portfolio are part of the company's approach to modular management, in which users can pick and choose which tools they want to buy and deploy them in pieces, rather than having to deploy an entire framework at once.
All the modular Unicenter products have CA's underlying common services that allow the software to run on its own, but also provide links to other CA tools that when also deployed, give users complete integration among CA software tools.
The software products are in the early stages of beta use and are slated for general availability during the summer.
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