Process to manage IP addresses
By Jeff Caruso
Network World Fusion, 12/15/98
Process Software yesterday unveiled an application to
handle IP address management-a hot button for
network managers.
As IP use has increased, so has the need for programs
that can assign and keep track of IP addresses
throughout a company. Network managers often keep
track of the addresses of users and network devices in
a spreadsheet, but that technique breaks down in a
large network.
Process Software's IP AddressWorks lets managers
change network configurations and IP addresses from
a central location. It is the first part of a suite of
management applications called IPworks, according to
Process. Upcoming pieces will manage network
policies, generate reports and manage billing.
For PacifiCare, an international health care company
headquartered in Santa Ana, Calif., tracking IP
addresses can be a hassle.
PacifiCare manages many of its IP addresses in a
central place, but some departments use Microsoft
Excel spreadsheets, says Randy Carter, principal
systems engineer at the Cypress, Calif., company. "It's
all hand-generated, very laborious, very tedious and
quite error-prone," he says.
The company evaluated Quadritek's IP address
management software but wanted capabilities in its
Domain Name Service server that Quadritek didn't
provide, Carter says. DNS servers map domain
names to numeric IP addresses.
PacifiCare wanted the software to provide a backup
server that would automatically kick in when the first
server fails. It also wanted the software to work with
Process' MultiNet DNS for OpenVMS. Process' new
IP AddressWorks software has those capabilities,
Carter says.
All of the applications are designed around directories
that use the standard Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol. Through LDAP, the software can retrieve
and change configuration data about devices in the
network.
The IP address management market is already
somewhat crowded. Players include Quadritek, now
owned by Lucent; American Internet, now owned by
Cisco; and MetaInfo, a subsidiary of CheckPoint.
"I could see Process getting bought. It'll be interesting
to see how long they stay independent," says Eddie
Hold, an analyst with Current Analysis in Sterling, Va.
He points out that 3Com and Xylan might want to
acquire IP address management capabilities. Both
work with Quadritek, but Hold speculates that those
agreements might change since their rival Lucent
bought the company in October.
IP AddressWorks will ship in the first quarter of next
year on Windows NT, OpenVMS and Unix, starting
at $2 per node. |
