XOsoft's InMotion Fighting the Downtime Battle
Avoiding Microsoft Exchange Server down-time is always a challenge—one that
more vendors are taking on. XOsoft's(http://www.xosoft.com) battlefield entry
is InMotion, software that automates Exchange maintenance and migration tasks
with the goal of simplifying these processes, preventing unexpected complexities
from turning planned limited downtime into unplanned extended downtime.
I spoke with XOsoft Founder and CEO Leonid Shtilman and XOsoft Executive Vice President of Marketing and Strategy Gil Rapaport. They explained the popular need for this type of product: One of our customers used another tool, [which] took 21 nights to migrate. It was a nightmare! Rapaport told me that the InMotion migration process can reduce user downtime to less than 5 minutes. The process consists of four steps: configuring an InMotion scenario, configuring the destination Exchange server, synchronizing Exchange data, and switching over Exchange.
InMotion works with Exchange 2000 and later (the product doesn't support moves
between Exchange servers in different Windows forests or Exchange administrative
groups). The price is between $2 and $7 per mailbox.
—Lisa Péré
Softricity's Application Virtualization
We listened to an exciting announcement from David Greschler, Softricity's (http://www.softricity.com)
cofounder and vice president of corporate marketing, about his company s impressive
efforts in the application virtualization realm. The Softricity Desktop comprising
an engine component called the Softgrid Platform and a front end called Softricity
Zero Touch turns software into instantly available, virtualized on-demand services
that don t require installation. The Softgrid Platform enables on-demand, virtualized
application delivery and policy-based management, and Softricity Zero Touch
gives you browser-based access to applications from anywhere. We want to virtualize
everything, all the time, Greschler said. Compared with today s typical corporate
desktop, which is static, unpredictable, and expensive to configure and manage,
the Softricity Desktop is always on, available anywhere, secure, and comparatively
cheap. The big benefit? You can give your users, in real time, exactly the applications
they need, no matter where they are and maintain their individual personalizations
throughout the network. Softricity enables software to be as instantly available
and easy to use as electricity, Greschler said..
—Jason Bovberg
EMC s Cluster Alternative
Storage and archiving are hot topics in the Microsoft Exchange Server ISV space.
Well-known storage companies seem to introduce Exchange-related products every
time you turn around. I recently spoke with Katie Curtin-Mestre, director of
CLARiiON software marketing at EMC (http:// www.emc.com), about EMC Storage
Administrator for Exchange. The product, which consolidates Exchange storage
on CLARiiON AX and CX arrays, debuted in October 2005. EMC touts the software
as a tool for both migration and simplified provisioning and as a lower-cost
alternative to clustering.
EMC Storage Administrator for Exchange was one of many new Exchange storage
products at last November's Microsoft Exchange Connections conference in San
Diego. I asked Katie how the product stacked up against others at the show.
What stands out about EMC Storage Administrator, she told me, is our real focus
on the notion of simplicity. Because the EMC product integrates with Exchange
System Manager (ESM), you don t have to be a storage expert to benefit from
networked storage. Katie also said that in response to customer feedback,, EMC
is developing features such as tighter integration with remote-replication software
and a higher level of integration with other EMC products in the next release.
—Lisa Péré
A Whale of a Security Solution
Striking a flexible balance between security and functionality is a tall order
these days, but Whale Communications (http://www.whalecommunications.com) has
partnered with Microsoft to take on that challenge. The result is a hardware
and software solution that combines Whale Communications Intelligent Application
Gateway and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 into
an easy to use and manage secure-access appliance. The solution provides IP
Security (IPSec) VPN, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) VPN, endpoint security, and
application security through a consolidated gateway that gives users secure
access to a broad range of applications and internal resources, all from a seamless
portal via single sign-on (SSO). In a recent briefing with the two companies,
Roger Pilc, Whale Communications CEO, summed up the benefits of the new security
solution: Users will be able to maximize the SSL benefits of granular application
and resource access from any device while providing secure IPSec access to users
requiring full network connectivity all while complying with internal policies.
—Gayle Rodcay
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