As the world of information technology and IP communications converge, NetIQ is a company in the center of both markets, providing solutions which enable their customers to better manage both disciplines. The company's core business is IT process automation and recently at Interop I had a chance to speak with the company's Director of Product Marketing and Chief Technology Strategist, Todd Tucker. In the IT process automation market the company provides NetIQ Aegis which helps a data center deal with routine maintenance issues like reboots which often need to be done in a specific order. Moreover the solution automates many processes which are typically tedious and error prone, allowing tech teams to focus on more important tasks and companies to enjoy the benefits of less mistakes which are often costly.
NetIQ Security Manager is a great tool to use as it brings automation to the security process, allowing easier security reviews, log preservation, threat management, incident response and change auditing. Tucker tells me what makes his company different "They bring in IT process automation in a way that provides more value and discrete cost savings for customers."
The company also plays in the unified communications space and in fact recently performed a survey on over 400 IT managers asking them about their UC thoughts. An interesting finding is that 12% of UC buyers said cost savings was a reason to deploy the technology while 50% said they will deploy UC to increase productivity and collaboration. This is definitely a bit of surprise considering the economy.
They also found that many who roll out UC aren't doing predeployment screening and as a result their networks just aren't ready when the time comes to make calls.
As mentioned above, the company has solutions for the communications market such as their NetIQ AppManager for VoIP which works with systems from Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and Nortel and solves the above problem.
So many companies don't pay enough attention to their networks... Today I was out to brunch with my family and my niece who is about nine months old was sitting on someone's lap. Networks are like the infant at the table... They reach for knives, forks, hot coffee and drop things, etc. They need constant monitoring and supervision - They are alive... Changing, growing and requiring your full attention.
But in the case of babies, at least they go to sleep sometimes which means you can take a rest from providing for them from time to time. Network managers know all too well however that networks never sleep and as such management tools to help automate processes and improve performance typically pay for themselves quickly.
Technorati
Del.icio.us
Slashdot
Digg
twitter
![it-expo-east-29[1].jpg](http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/assets_c/2008/07/it-expo-east-29[1]-thumb-150xauto-3058.jpg)
Leave a comment