Oculan Unveils Appliance For Microsoft Environments

The appliance, dubbed Oculan 5.0, combines a variety of systems and desktop management functions with security solutions that provide customers with a comprehensive managed services approach to handling Microsoft networks. It was expected to be available to channel partners immediately.

Robert Davis, president and CEO of Raleigh, N.C.-based Oculan, said that in addition to managing and securing Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange, Active Directory and Terminal Services, the new device supports Unix, Linux and AS400 servers.

"We are bringing together for the first time two different worlds, the world of Microsoft and the world of other technology vendors, into one management and security solution," said Davis. "With Oculan 5.0, we are raising the bar for outstanding IT management even higher."

As Davis explained, the new Oculan platform builds on features from the company's Oculan 100 and Oculan 250 "purple box" solutions to deliver inventory, performance and availability information for a variety of infrastructures. For Microsoft servers in particular, Oculan 5.0 provides added capabilities to restart "dead" services, and capabilities to start or stop those services from a single console at a remote location.

What's more, two new features, an Executive View and a Network Report Card, provide network managers with summary information on network security and performance. The device also features expanded reporting features, enabling users to export a wide variety of network and inventory data into XML or Excel.

Pricing for Oculan 5.0 was expected to begin at $4,995.