MICROmega Technologies, the African distributor of Netcordia, today announced at the Gartner Symposium/IT Expo - Orlando, Florida - Netcordia, the leading provider of Network Configuration & Change Management (NCCM) solutions, today announced NetMRI 4 - the next generation network automation solution for physical and virtual network infrastructures.
Configuration drives today's virtual data centre and NetMRI 4 is an essential key to managing it. It features the most advanced NCCM capabilities and flexible architecture available. It can run as a VMware virtual appliance downloaded from the Web, installs in less than 30 minutes, can be purchased on a monthly subscription-based model as well as a perpetual licence, and scales to manage 100 000+ network devices with multi-tenancy architecture and views.
“We've taken an advanced NCCM product, and recast it as a highly scalable and flexible enterprise network configuration automation solution. It's incredibly easy for new customers to experience NetMRI's immediate impact - and for our customers to expand use of the tool they trust, by several orders of magnitude,” said Don Pyle, CEO of Netcordia. “This is what our customers and partners expect - architecture that scales with their needs, easy deployment, advanced capabilities and flexible budget options.”
NetMRI 4 fundamentally shifts the network management software landscape, by putting the most powerful and intuitive solution within reach of any network - small to mid-sized to enterprise-scale. Version 4 enhancements align NetMRI with the most strategic IT initiatives, as a must-have solution for managing underlying network configuration and changes - which continues to be the number-one cause of network degradation, instability and outages.
NetMRI 4 establishes the foundation for managing network infrastructures that will become increasingly complex with the advent of virtualisation and cloud computing. NetMRI allows enterprises, service providers and managed network service providers to more effectively automate, optimise and manage their network infrastructures, which in turn allows these organisations to handle the complex requirements of virtualisation and cloud computing.
Introducing NetMRI virtual appliance
Partners and customers now have the option to download and run NetMRI as a virtual appliance within a VMware virtual machine, or continue to use the existing NetMRI physical appliance. Not just a software application, the virtual appliance comes bundled with all required system components, making installation truly a plug-and-play operation, with no need to install and maintain an operating system or database, just as if it were a physical appliance.
Highly scalable, multi-tenant distributed architecture
NetMRI 4 features a new, distributed architecture that is able to tier groups and networks into a single point of management. This architecture offers unlimited flexibility to define multi-user, multi-role and multi-domain access and privileges, making NetMRI the go-to tool for managers at every level in the IT organisation and network operations centre (NOC).
NetMRI 4 navigates and inventories any environment, and provides a single, consolidated view of the entire network, utilising an easy-to-use interface and intuitive drill-down options.
Next-generation network automation
NetMRI 4 moves beyond the simple network management functions of collecting data and generating alerts and reports to directly address the foundation of network stability - how the network is configured and maintained.
New network automation features make it possible to:
* Trigger jobs that must be implemented to immediately resolve problems NetMRI discovers.
* Collect diagnostic information and conditionally chain together automation tasks to remediate issues, provision network services, and roll out network updates.
* Effectively manage a myriad jobs with status notifications and an enhanced job automation wizard - to provide network managers with the ability to schedule and automate tasks formerly seen as too complex and risky.
Advanced network management features
The growing complexity of network infrastructures - and emerging demands from bandwidth-intensive applications and data centre operations - have made network configuration and change management an essential capability for organisations of all sizes.
NetMRI 4 introduces a number of new features that align with customers' system and process requirements.
Summary of newly added capabilities in NetMRI 4
Deployment
Virtual or physical appliance
Choice of deployment on either a VMware virtual appliance or physical appliance hardware.
Subscription-based pricing
New subscription-based pricing options allow organisations with tight budgets to deploy state-of-the-art NCCM solution. Perpetual licensing continues to be offered.
Downloadable
Can be downloaded, configured and deployed within minutes.
Totally turnkey
Everything needed for operation is preinstalled, packaged and tuned for easy deployment within minutes. No server operating systems or databases to install, configure and support.
Free trial
Thirty-day full functionality trial available. VMware player bundled with software to be installed in one easy step on Windows machines, for those that do not have access to VMware servers.
Scales with Virtual Machine resources
Elastically scales with the Virtual Machine resources provisioned to meet the needs of different customer requirements.
Multi-tenant distributed architecture
Scales to thousands of devices
Distributed architecture, able to manage large networks with the same easy to use interface and single point of management.
IP Subnet overlap handling
Supports multiple networks and managed service providers' multi-customer domains, providing a single consolidated view of the entire network.
Multi-user, multi-role, multi-domain definitions
Organises and manages multi-tenant deployments and enforces user responsibilities and privileges.
Enriched automation capabilities
Triggered jobs
Facilitates auto remediation to resolve problems that NetMRI discovers, to trigger automatic collection of diagnostic information, or to conditionally chain together automation tasks.
Single click roll-back
One-click configuration roll-back for rapid disaster recovery.
Job automation wizard and status notification
Job automation wizard helps schedule network changes. New notification capabilities alert users to important job status milestones.
Alignment with cross-functional systems and processes
Enhanced notification
Enhanced notification enables more flexible multi-organisation process and system integration.
Advanced configuration search
Advanced network and configuration searching combines NetMRI's network attribute data model with configuration searching to enable the rapid location of devices that meet custom criteria, allowing the user to act on the resulting device set as a group, and remediate unwanted configuration conditions.
Live interface status view
Drill-down to real-time interface performance statistics for diagnosing configurations, network utilisation and the impact of issues.
Long term storage
Configurable on-board and SAN compatible, long-term data storage options.
Report scheduling
Automatically generate reports at scheduled times.
Additional packaged analysis
More packaged analysis content, including DISA STIG and DOD IAVA monitoring policies.
“As network infrastructure and data centre operations become more complicated and interdependent, there's an urgent need for companies to proactively manage every configuration change - and know the impact of those changes on critical business operations,” said Jim Frey, Research Director at EMA. “With this latest release, and in particular their new deployment options, Netcordia's best-in-class solutions are becoming even more accessible, making it easier than ever to achieve deep NCCM rigor and deliver real value to IT operations.”
The product is now available for download: http://netmri.netcordia.com/.
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Netcordia
Netcordia is a leading provider of network automation software to the world's most complex and mission-critical networks. Its award-winning NetMRI network change and configuration management (NCCM) solution continuously audits multi-vendor infrastructures, identifies anomalies early and speeds resolution. Netcordia helps leading healthcare, managed service providers, financial services, academic, and government organisations stretch IT budgets, improve overall performance, meet corporate policy and comply with stringent federal regulations. Founded in 2 000, Netcordia is headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, and ranks on the Red Herring 100, the Inc. 500 and the Deloitte Fast 500 lists. For more information, visit www.netcordia.com.
MICROmega Technologies
MICROmega Technologies (MMT) is a specialist, truly value add distributor of business application, network and security management solutions. The products and services recommended and distributed by MMT range from hardware technologies (integrated appliances), software-based analytical and management systems, through to services. These tools are used to optimise technology resources within the enterprise, including data centres, communications networks and business applications through a broad but integrated view of the technologies and infrastructure in operation. This view provides management with the information necessary to optimise the operational infrastructure components that make up the delivery of business services.
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