Email is basically a utility service for businesses—like electricity—and Azaleos wants to be "the utility company for email," says Azaleos CTO and cofounder Keith McCall. Azaleos's announcement Monday of a major version 2.0 upgrade of its Exchange Server appliance/managed services combination adds new modules that bring the company's managed email offering closer than ever to utility status.
The new modules add capability to Azaleos's managed email solution, which includes the Azaleos OneServer for Microsoft Exchange 2003 appliance and Azaleos OneStop Managed Services, a set of remote managed services for the appliance available in a tiered pricing scheme. The first module, ArchiveXchange, is an email-archiving solution that moves mail out of the Exchange store to contain mailbox growth and retain messages for compliance. ArchiveXchange, which is part of Azaleos's high-end service ($12 per user per month), costs about $2 per user per month, McCall says.
The other two modules are part of the base Azaleos managed service ($5 per user per month). Azaleos developed the ViewXchange reporting tool in response to customers who wanted an easy way to generate the 10 to 15 most commonly requested Exchange reports. Through a Web portal, Azaleos customers can retrieve on demand reports on metrics such as message flow and mailbox-store growth. "We believe this [reporting capability] is incredibly competitive with Quest Software Spotlight on Exchange," says McCall. The remaining module, SecureXchange, is a remote control tool that lets Azaleos's IT staff access a customer's Exchange server for troubleshooting—without compromising the customer's security or, says McCall, "giving IT the keys to the kingdom." SecureXchange also supports Windows PowerShell scripting and can facilitate an in-place migration to Exchange Server 2007, McCall says.
Microsoft last week launched the public beta of its new Forefront Security for SharePoint, which will provide protection from viruses and malicious content for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. As more business are demanding and using collaboration technologies to share information, they are becoming increasingly vulnerable to viruses or attacks designed to steal important company data. Microsoft is addressing these concerns by updating and morphing the Antigen for SharePoint solution that it acquired as part of the acquisition of Sybari Software in 2005. The Antigen products are now part of the Forefront brand, which is the umbrella brand for all Microsoft's security products for the business community.
According to Joe Licari, product manager for Forefront Security for Exchange and SharePoint, companies need to protect against viruses, malicious code, and undesirable content in documents, whether they're coming in through email attachments or whether their being put up on fileservers or onto SharePoint servers in the document library. "Companies want to make sure they're providing layered protection, but they also need a consistent level of protection across all platforms," he said. "IT administrators don't want to block certain file types coming in through email, only to inadvertently force users to use their SharePoint servers as a store for those types of files."
Forefront uses a layered, multiple scan engine approach to scan documents as they're being uploaded to SharePoint servers and when being downloaded by users. When a document is uploaded to a SharePoint server, Forefront first scans the document with up to five antivirus engines to make sure it doesn't contain malicious code. If it passes that, Forefront also scans it for confidential or inappropriate content.
"We have relationships with eight different antivirus labs," said Licari, "and we provide all their antivirus engines in the Forefront product. When you install the product the IT administrator has the ability to choose which ones they want to enable, up to a maximum of five engines. Beyond that, you trade any additional benefits with performance hits."
Forefront uses a multiple scan engine approach because if you rely on a single antivirus solution for the entire organization (on desktops, servers, and the edge), you have in effect a single point of failure because if a virus gets past that particular antivirus engine you expose everyone in the organization. By integrating multiple scan engines, you can provide a much greater level of security.
Click here, to see the communication problems between Linux and Windows. Starring "Tux" the Linux penguin and "Clippit" the annoying Microsoft Help Assistant, this puppet show pokes fun at common system-issues debated by both the Linux and Windows communities. Run time: 2:09.
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Editors
Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007 is a brand new management solution designed specifically to address the needs of midsized organizations. It lets IT administrators in midsized businesses proactively manage their network infrastructure with increased efficiency by using a unified, centralized management console. System Center Essentials will provide customers with:
· A unified solution with a single console for managing a broad range of tasks across your servers, clients, hardware, software, and IT services for a unified experience.
· Out of the box tools to proactively manage your IT environment, keeping your system up-to-date with tools that accelerate problem resolution and enable automation of system updates and data collection.
· A management solution that's easy to deploy and maintain, helping to simplify complex management tasks for increased IT efficiency.
For more information about System Center Essentials 2007 and directions on how to download Beta 2 please visit:: www.microsoft.com/sce
We spoke with Double-Take Software recently about its unique approach to real-time data protection. By combining Double-Take technology with a VMware virtual infrastructure, customers can build a flexible server infrastructure optimized for disaster recovery: The system enables the use of real-time data protection, monitoring, and failover within virtual machines for the protection of business-critical data and applications. Also, large-volume creation, protection, and sharing can be accomplished through one interface for all supported platforms. Customers can now consolidate their disaster-recover environment from physical servers to substantially fewer virtual servers, and thereby better manage data according to regulatory compliance.
This year’s categories included: Best New Product, Most Innovative Product, Business Intelligence Systems, Database Development and Administration, Developer Tools, Hardware Solutions, Messaging, Productivity and Collaboration, Security, Software Components & Middleware, and Systems Management and Operations.
Altiris was awarded Best New Product for its Software Virtualization Solution (SVS). “SVS stands out as the best new product because it allows users to eliminate application conflicts by maintaining unique and separate file and registry settings for virtualized applications. This solution stands out because of its practical value and ability to help users overcome common problems quickly and easily through application virtualization,” said Otey.
The Most Innovative Award went to PolyServe’s Database Utility for SQL Server. “We selected PolyServe’s Database Utility for SQL Server because it addresses availability and maintenance with a new, forward-thinking approach. Using a feature called dynamic rehosting, it enables SQL Server instances to be shifted between different host servers within seconds using a shared store architecture. Dynamic rehosting provides high availability of SQL Server services as well as one-click system maintenance,” commented Otey.
Independent Computer Systems Ltd.’s RSinteract product won in the Business Intelligence Systems category. “RSinteract provides a simple report design interface that allows end users to quickly build new reports or customize existing reports on any data source defined in Reporting Services. Because it is a server-based web application, it requires no client software or plug-ins. The simple user interface allows business users to interactively browse data, create and deploy reports to share with other users, and virtually eliminate the need for IT intervention,” said May.
Quest’s Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise took the award in the Database Development and Administration category. “Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise helps DBAs quickly resolve problems by combining data from multiple sources including SQL Server, Windows performance counters, and registry data and traces,” said Otey. “Spotlight’s graphical dashboard display gives the DBA a quick overview of the overall system health, plus it allows the DBA to quickly drill down to the underlying server processes.”
In the Developer Tools category, Compuware’s DevPartner garnered the Best of Tech Ed award because it, “enhances the capabilities of the Visual Studio Team System by adding software quality and code analysis capabilities for both .NET and unmanaged applications,” said Otey. “Built-in expert coding advice, standards, and best practices guide the developer, ultimately resulting in higher quality code throughout the software development lifecycle. DevPartner can review source code against predefined rules and standards as well as track and optimize system resource usage and identify application performance problem areas.”
The Hardware Solutions category winner is Intel’s new Centrino Duo Mobile dual-core mobile-processor technology. “The Centrino Duo Mobile offers unique value and competitive differentiation with its two mobile-optimized execution cores in a single processor. The Mobile Intel 945 Express chipset offers terrific performance for flexible and scalable platforms, as well as dual-channels DR2 memory at 667MHz. Combined with the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, the chipset delivers fine graphics performance on mobile systems,” according to Eno.
Zenprise won in the Messaging category. “Zenprise provides a powerful automated email problem resolution solution that collects operational data from across the entire Exchange infrastructure. It constructs a baseline profile showing typical system activity and performance levels and automatically analyzes deviations from these baselines, matching the symptoms against possible causes. The product then provides a series of steps that the administrator can follow to resolve the problem,” said Otey.
In the Productivity and Collaboration category, Neverfail Group’s Neverfail for SharePoint took the honors. Bovberg said this product “is a high-availability solution that helps ensure high productivity for SharePoint users by protecting physical server hardware, OSs, and any other attached network infrastructure components. It takes corrective action when necessary while remaining completely transparent to the user. The product also protects all servers that produce SharePoint content, such as SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Public Folders, or file servers.”
In the Security category, NetIQ’s Security Manager 5.5 won because it “provides a comprehensive security solution for the heterogeneous enterprise,” as noted by Otey. “Security Manager 5.5 provides real-time intrusion detection response capabilities as well as security log management and forensics for all of the different platforms that comprise the enterprise, including Windows, UNIX and Linux servers and network firewall devices. The built-in comprehensive security knowledge base helps the administrator to quickly understand and respond to threats at all levels.”
ComponentOne’s Studio Enterprise 2006 won the award in the Software Components and Middleware category. “With over 100 native .NET controls, ComponentOne Studio Enterprise simplifies the development experience providing a richer and easier to use toolset than the basic components offered by Visual Studio. ComponentOne Studio Enterprise 2006 includes a wide variety of UI controls. Most notable are a .NET Chart control, an ADO.NET Data Extender control, and royalty free reporting components that support PDF output. In addition, ComponentOne Studio Enterprise 2006 includes support for the .NET Framework 2.0, smart designers, and AJAX,” said Otey.
Configuresoft’s Enterprise Configuration Manager was honored in the Systems Management and Operations category. “For systems administrators who want not only complete control but also remediation capabilities, Configuresoft’s Enterprise Configuration Manager is a solution that answers the questions you don’t know to ask. This enterprise configuration management product enables cross-platform management and can monitor, manage and audit hardware and software configurations for the servers and clients in the organization,” said Eisenberg.
Are there products that you just couldn't live without? If so, please let us know by dropping an email to whatshot@windowsitpro.com. If we feature your product in the What's Hot section, you'll receive a free t-shirt!
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Editors
April 27, 2006 (Loveland, Colorado) – Penton Media’s (OTCBB:PTON) Windows IT Media, announced the finalists for the “Best of Microsoft Management Summit April 27, 2006 (Loveland, Colorado) – Penton Media’s (OTCBB:PTON) Windows IT Media, announced the finalists for the “Best of Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) Awards 2006” after reviewing more than 40 management-related IT products and services submitted for the contest. Judges chose 10 finalists and plan to review the products during the MMS exposition in San Diego, CA on April 25 and 26.
"The field included more than 40 entries, and after technically evaluating all the entries, we chose finalists based on the product’s strategic importance to the market, its competitive advantages and the value to the customer," said Michael Otey, Technical Director for Windows IT Pro.
Configuresoft’s Enterprise Configuration Manager won the Overall Best of MMS 2006 award, and Altiris’ Software Virtualization Solution won the Best New Product award. Argent Software’s Guardian, DesktopStandard Corporation’s PolicyMaker Application, and Softricity’s Virtualization Platform all received Runner Up awards. Other finalists were Quest Software’s Vintela Authentication Services, Centrify’s DirectControl, eXc Software’s MOM and SMS eXctender Event Provider for non-Windows, NetPro’s ChangeAuditor, and Iconclude’s Repair System.
Winners were announced on April 26 at the Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Magazine booth #525 during the exposition at 7:00 p.m. These top Management products will gain industry recognition from the prestigious award and be deemed as an industry leader.
Winners of the “Best of Microsoft Management Summit Awards 2006” will be published in the July issues of Windows It Pro and SQL Server Magazine.
About Windows IT Media Penton’s Windows IT Media, the largest independent Windows IT community in the world, includes flagship print publication Windows IT Pro. First published in 1995, Windows IT Pro is the editorial leader in its field and has a paid subscription base of 105,000. The magazine is published in 13 languages and has an international reach into 160 countries. Windows IT Pro UPDATE, the group’s flagship email newsletter, is the only e-newsletter to make BtoB Magazine’s Media Power 50 list.
Windows IT Media also includes SQL Server Magazine and MSD2D. SQL Server Magazine has 30,000 paid subscribers, and three email newsletters sent to more than 130,000 opt-in subscribers. MSD2D is a rich online information resource for IT professionals, with a focus on the software developer community. MSD2D has a robust product mix that includes avertical search engine, Web sites, partner directories, email newsletters, trade show programs and Web seminars.
The Windows IT Media network has 2.5 million unique visitors to its websites each month, and over one million (gross) subscribers who opt-in to one or more of our email newsletters. Windows IT Media is the world’s leading producer of custom roadshows, paid conferences and paid workshops for Windows and SQL Server IT professionals.
For more information visit: www.windowsitpro.com/pressroom, and www.windowsitmedia.com. - posted by
Editors
On Wednesday, Microsoft announced the availability of SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1. This service pack includes a production-ready version of Database Mirroring, SQL Server Management Studio Express, and SAP business intelligence support. In addition, the service pack offers a new option for SQL Server 2005 Express Edition users: In addition to the standard Express download, users will have the option to also download SQL Server Management Studio Express, Reporting Services, and Full-Text Search. To download SQL Server 2005 SP1, go to the Microsoft Download Center.
