Integrated Research targets Windows, UNIX, Linux markets for accelerated growth with PROGNOSIS

Integrated Research Limited, leading developer of systems management software for high-availability computing environments, is targeting the rapid adoption of Windows, UNIX and Linux platforms to increase its global market share over the next 12 months.

IR is also stepping up support for the different infrastructure components of ebusiness management as fundamental drivers of its proven systems management architecture.

"We expect that the growth in Windows and UNIX markets will enable us to achieve our target of becoming a $100 million company by 2004," says IR president and CEO Steve Killelea.

"From an end-user perspective, this means addressing system response times and availability of e-business services. From a business perspective, it means managing the e-business infrastructure components themselves, including the components specific to application server platforms in addition to databases, servers, networks and other vital components."

On the back of positive results for the fiscal year ending June 2002, the company reported an increase of 216 per cent in revenue from the Windows and UNIX versions of its systems management software product, PROGNOSIS.

Despite a depressed economy and difficult trading conditions, IR again expects tripledigit growth for its cross-platform products in the year ahead, suggesting the strategy of pursuing emerging technologies and the 'new ground` of cross-platform systems management is bearing fruit.

"In anticipation of this growth we are continuing to invest heavily in research and development," says Killelea.

"Product enhancements are in development that will complete our e-business and UNIX offerings and will open up other opportunities, including Storage Area Network (SAN) management, Network Attached Storage (NAS) management and service level management (SLM). With its integrated monitoring, reporting and security functionality, PROGNOSIS is already a compelling SLM solution, and we intend to build on this functionality as we further develop this facet of the product."

IR`s systems management expertise was borne out of managing the world`s highest availability computing environments, traditionally run on the HP NonStop (previously Tandem) platform.

"The same companies that employ NonStop for their mission-critical systems and applications are increasingly adopting other platforms, notably Windows, UNIX and Linux, in their extended e-business operations," notes Killelea.

"We identified this trend a few years ago and extended our PROGNOSIS architecture to support these new platforms and emerging technologies - such as IP telephony - that were built around them. Today, PROGNOSIS is ideally positioned for managing e-business environments as a true cross-platform systems management product, giving companies the same depth of functionality irrespective of the types and number of systems they`re managing."

Killelea says the growth is being fuelled by the demand for real-time, highperformance e-business systems that deliver 24x7 availability. Windows and UNIX platforms typically co-exist in these largely distributed environments, and companies are looking for ways to manage them in the same way - with the same tools - that they use to manage their mainline systems.

"PROGNOSIS has successfully competed in the global IT industry in terms of price, quality, functionality and reliability - and will continue to do so."