Zenith unveils free management tool

Johannesburg, 07 Jul 2009

Local IT security company, Zenith Systems, in conjunction with Q1 Labs, has rolled out free log management and compliance software that provides visibility across networks, data centres, and infrastructures.

Zenith Systems revealed in a statement that its product, branded QRadar Simple Log and Information Management Free Edition (Slim Fe), can be downloaded via its Web site. QRadar is Q1 Lab's flagship security information and event management solution that integrates separate network management functions into a single framework.

The Slim Fe software allows IT professionals to collect, analyse, report, and store network, host, server, application, and security event logs, via syslog, from any source, including routers, switches, and security devices.

According to Zenith Systems, the tool offers many of the same capabilities found in the company's appliance-based version, also called Slim. The free edition is intended for networks that have fewer than 50 events per second coming from their log sources.

Constrained budgets

Murray Benadie, MD of Zenith Systems, says: “We find that most South African organisations have a log management compliance mandate to fulfill, but budgets have been temporarily withdrawn - this until the economic situation improves.”

Benadie adds that QRadar Slim Fe provides budget-constrained IT departments with pressing log management needs, an immediate win solution.

The company also revealed it has introduced a log management user community, a Web site allowing users to collaborate and exchange ideas regarding log management and security-related issues via an online forum. Users can also gain access to developer tools for implementing device support modules.

Chris Christiansen, programme vice-president of security products and services at research firm IDC, points out that log management has become a requirement for best practices and compliance mandates. He notes there has been a change in the attention paid to the enterprise security market because of the data breaches which have impacted some of the largest organisations.