Feb 10, 2000 (Tech Web - CMP via COMTEX) -- Now that Microsoft's
Windows 2000 is just days away from shipping, IT organizations are
confronting the daunting task of managing the new operating system.
Microsoft says Windows 2000 is the most secure and reliable OS the
company has ever shipped. But before deploying it, companies should
plan properly to avoid spiraling migration and management costs,
according to a new Gartner Group study.
"Windows 2000 doesn't manage itself," said Gartner Group analyst Mike
Silver, adding that those deploying the new platform will need
third-party tools. "If you don't put forward the effort to bring
yourself into a managed Windows 2000 environment, you're not going to
see the results."
Several vendors -- IBM's Tivoli Software, Entevo, Fundamental Software,
and others -- will release management tools at next week's Windows 2000
conference.
IT departments need to exert strict controls over how the systems are
configured across server farms, according to observers. The IT staff at
Columbia Hospital of America needed to gain better control over the hot
fixes and service packs being installed on its Windows NT systems prior
to its Y2K lockdown, said Eric Enos, a network administrator in the
company's Wintel certification lab.
It was an arduous task. Administrators had to check DLLfile versions
and registry settings system by system, Enos said. "A lot of system
problems are traceable back to DLL [changes or software] put on the box
without the user paying attention" to the impact on system performance,
he added.
To reduce system downtime, Columbia HCA turned to Fundamental's
Enterprise Configuration Manager 2.5, which will be released next week.
The software monitors and compares Windows NT and 2000 systems against
predefined configuration templates. If hardware and software variables
are out of sync with corporate standards, IT managers are automatically
notified.
For example, a server running Microsoft's Exchange with the proper
configuration can be used as a model to check configuration changes
across other networked Exchange servers, Enos said. Other products the
company tried, such as Compaq's Insight Manager and NetIQ, couldn't
drill down to the DLL or registry level and compare settings with other
machines, he added.
The Fundamental software is available now. Pricing starts at $500 per
server and $50 per workstation.
Mitch Wagner contributed to this story.
Copyright (C) 2000 CMP Media Inc.
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