Nivis standardises on CA`s Unicenter and eTrust

Computer Associates International, Inc. (CA) today announced that Nivis LLC, a rapidly growing integrator of advanced business intelligence systems, has standardized on CA`s industry-leading Unicenter and eTrust solutions to enhance the reliability and flexibility of its cutting-edge eBusiness management infrastructure while keeping costs under control.

Nivis creates highly customized data acquisition systems that monitor networks of industrial devices in the field. The systems integrator builds customized software and devices that capture environmental data at the source and transmit it in real time across wireless networks and the Internet. The data is then stored at Nivis` data center on Linux, Windows and UNIX servers within multiple relational databases.

"Our three-person infrastructure management staff was overwhelmed by technological diversity because we were using so many point solutions, all of which operated differently and none of which provided a comprehensive overview," said Marius Chilom, CEO at Nivis LLC. "Our challenge was finding a way to help without risking key projects that the company was counting on. Computer Associates accepted this as their challenge as well."

Nivis had a problem with two crucial prototypes that had been developed prior to contacting CA. Potential clients were happy with their highly automated design but disappointed with reliability. Prototypes of key farm and water erosion management systems were crashing multiple times a week. The company had to find a way to upgrade its management infrastructure while maintaining its implementation schedule and conserving scarce working capital. Nivis also needed a way to cost effectively test new technology.

Taking advantage of the flexibility of CA`s new Business Model, Nivis replaced its existing Hewlett-Packard, Cabletron and Cisco utilities with Unicenter and eTrust. Compared to the hodgepodge of point solutions, CA`s solutions provided superior integration and ease-of-use. Unicenter and eTrust software are being built into Nivis` vertical automation solutions to provide end-to-end management of the entire enterprise.

"Unicenter and eTrust provided a unified console and a more flexible architecture relative to the Cabletron, Cisco and HP tools," said Chilom. "So, after three months we converted to a longer term license, but we would never have known how much we needed this software had CA not allowed Nivis to license it on a short-term basis first."

Unicenter provides a single point-of-control for managing all resources critical to eBusiness availability, including servers, networks, applications, databases and Internet assets. eTrust solutions protect Nivis` entire IT environment from a central location, providing access control, a firewall, a VPN, intrusion detection and gateway-based virus protection for complete, enterprise-wide, cross-platform security.

"eTrust solutions have been instrumental in helping us identify and mitigate risk. For example, upon installing eTrust Intrusion Detection, we discovered that hackers had compromised our email system and were pilfering information from our accounting systems," said Chilom. "We brought in the security software for testing with no idea how badly we needed it. Who knows how much havoc the trespassers would have wrought had we not found them."

Nivis received another immediate benefit after installing Unicenter. Nivis uses 3Com`s voice-over-IP (VoIP) phone switch to handle telephone traffic. Technicians learned that enormous traffic flows from this switch were degrading intranet performance. The congestion was resolved easily by routing the voice traffic over a parallel network, but the extent of network degradation was unknown until Nivis installed Unicenter Performance Management.

"It was a remarkable learning experience from the outset because we got the first Unicenter module up in a week and everything else within three-and-a-half months," said Chilom. "This testifies to the quality of personnel CA sent to work with us, as does the fact that Nivis has been without unplanned downtime in its data centers and hosting facility since finishing the implementation."

Nivis is also interested in spotting previously hidden trends across networks, servers, routers, applications and databases that impact its monitoring and data collection in non-IT environments. To this end, Nivis plans to implement the unique predictive management capabilities in Unicenter.

"CA and Nivis have forged a strong working relationship that is measurably enhancing our customers` ability to manage distant industrial devices, around the globe," said Tarkan Maner, CA`s vice president of corporate marketing. "By deploying Unicenter and eTrust technologies to bridge the gap between the virtual and real worlds, Nivis is extending the boundaries of integrated eBusiness management to the absolute edge of the enterprise."