Novadigm 's new internet software management tools (release)
Users manage software via browser
Gordon Mah Ung
(News, 10/20/97)
Electronic software distribution vendor Novadigm, Inc. last week announced a product line called Radia Software
Manager that lets end users install, repair or uninstall corporate-approved software or content via their intranet
browser.
Beta testers said the Radia line looks promising and could save information technology departments time, energy
and network bandwidth and give end users more control over their software updates.
The software manager ''empowers the user to check if something is broken or corrupt, or if something is missing
from the registry,'' said Paul Syrvalin, a LAN manager at Alltel, Inc. in Little Rock, Ark.
That should help cut calls to the help desk, said Syrvalin, who manages about 2,500 PCs. He is just beginning to
beta-test the product.
Syrvalin said Radia will benefit the growing hordes of mobile users who can check from home if they need a
software update.
If they don't have the bandwidth or time then, they can wait until they plug their laptop in to the corporate network
and download the update.
CUSTOMIZATION
Systems administrators could use Radia Software Manager to customize package applications before publishing
them on a server.
Norman Vadnais, a desktop management specialist at Kaiser Permanente Health Plan, Inc. in Pasadena, Calif.,
said Radia gives managers granular control over how a particular application is configured before downloading.
MORE CONTROL
''Say we have a user who wants to put WinZip on their machine. Using Radia, we can control how WinZip is
installed on the machine so it won't screw up the machine,'' Vadnais said.
Waverly Deutsch, director of computing strategies at Forrester Research, Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., said Radia
goes beyond distributing code. ''Any digital asset can be managed through this architecture,'' Deutsch said.
And because Radia lets end users uninstall applications when they are finished, more employees get a chance to
use the software without exceeding the user limits of licensing agreements, she said.
Radia Software Manager, expected to be available in December, will support Windows NT and Windows clients
with World Wide Web browsers.
The initial license fees start at $15,000 for a server that supports 100 subscribers.
Each additional subscriber costs $50.
Novadigm, in Mahwah, N.J., expects Unix and Mac OS support to be available early next year. |
