Altiris Buys Pedestal Software for Its Security-Management Tools
On March 30, Altiris, a maker of IT life-cycle management software, moved to broaden its security audit and compliance capabilities by acquiring privately held Pedestal Software for $65 million in cash.
Scalable Software Release Survey 3.6
In March, Scalable Software launched an update to its inventory management software suite Survey 3.6, featuring enhanced usage-based and asset discovery policies, new report templates and Linux support. The company dubbed the update "a new breed of closed-loop asset management solution," because of its convergence of configuration management and inventory and usage functions.
Novell's Purchase of Tally Systems Strengthens Asset Management Tools
In April, Novell, Inc. acquired privately held Tally Systems, a longtime maker of IT asset management software, for an undisclosed sum. The purchase, along with acquisitions of SuSE and Ximian in 2003, fuels Novell's expansion into the high-growth areas of asset management tools and open-source software.
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This month's features were written by Jon Rogers, a market research consultant based in Hopkinton, Mass. Prior to joining ECP as a contributing analyst, Rogers spent 15 years as a senior analyst with International Data Corporation’s (IDC) leasing and technology evaluation service. Rogers focuses on new technologies and their impact and application in business, including useful life, secondary markets and evaluating software and hardware technology providers. Rogers brings his expertise in voice and data networking products and providers to ECP and offers insights in the areas of software and IT asset management.
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Altiris Buys Pedestal Software for Its Security-Management Tools
On March 30, Altiris, a maker of IT life-cycle management software, moved to broaden its security audit and compliance capabilities by acquiring privately held Pedestal Software for $65 million in cash. The purchase allows Altiris to respond to growing customer demand for a solid portfolio of security management tools, making the company more competitive against larger systems-management players like BMC and Computer Associates.
Pedestal's two core products, SecurityExpressions (complete vulnerability management, audit and compliance) and AuditExpress (basic system security audit) are used in enterprise networks to enforce a consistent level of system security for servers, desktops and laptops. Both products are available immediately as stand-alone packages and will be part of the Altiris Client Security Suite expected in the fourth quarter of 2005.
The Pedestal purchase puts Altiris at the forefront of a trend integrating IT operations management with security management. Life-cycle management vendors Computer Associates, BMC and Tivoli are also rapidly fattening their product portfolios as this market continues to take shape and grow.
Pedestal Software is the fourth acquisition by Altiris in 16 months. Its previous acquisitions were Tonic Software in January 2004 (Web server monitoring and diagnostics), BridgeWater Technologies in September 2004 (network device discovery, provisioning, configuration), and Wise Solutions in December 2003 (software delivery and patch management).
Altiris's extensible and modular Web-based architecture line allows it to integrate acquisitions quickly and deliver new technologies and capabilities to customers. The company expects technical integration of Pedestal Software's products into its own products to take about five months.
With $126 million in cash at the end of 2005's first quarter, Altiris may not yet have finished its buying spree.
Scalable Software Releases Survey 3.6
In March, Scalable Software launched an update to its inventory management software suite Survey 3.6, featuring enhanced usage-based and asset discovery policies, new report templates and Linux support. The company dubbed the update "a new breed of closed-loop asset management solution," because of its convergence of configuration management and inventory and usage functions.
Browser-based Survey 3.6 consists of two packages: Survey Workforce Manager for desktop security and standards enforcement and Survey IT Portfolio Manager for optimizing asset management and software license management. The latter package offers two add-ons: Survey Printer Manager and Survey Policy Manager.
Survey 3.6's report templates enable users to make money-saving decisions on software usage, sorting through detailed usage data to provide recommendations for installed software that can be uninstalled, downgraded from professional to standard or replaced with a free viewer. The templates also indicate desktops where installed software is unused, allowing redeployment.
Linux support for Red Hat Release 9.0 and higher is an important addition, given the rapid growth of open source software. Support for Apple's Macintosh OS X operating system, added late last year, also expanded the Survey line's compatibility.
In May, Scalable announced that policy compliance enhancements in Survey 3.6 allowed Scalable to automate compliance with configuration policy, integrating its asset inventory capabilities with configuration management capabilities in Microsoft's SMS 2003, Remedy's BMC Software and Peregrine's AssetCenter and ServiceCenter. Microsoft said Survey 3.6's compatibility would allow customers to take advantage of its Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), which will to dramatically simplify and automate design, deployment and operation of distributed systems.
Survey 3.6 is Scalable Software's fourth Survey update in a year and half. We expect to see this pattern of frequent updates continue in 2005.
Novell's Purchase of Tally Systems Strengthens Asset Management Tools
In April, Novell, Inc. acquired privately held Tally Systems, a longtime maker of IT asset management software, for an undisclosed sum. The purchase, along with acquisitions of SuSE (second-most popular Linux distribution, behind Red Hat) and Ximian (Linux software) in 2003, fuels Novell's expansion into the high-growth areas of asset management tools and open-source software.
Based in Lebanon, N.H., Tally began in 1990 as a pioneer in PC hardware and software inventory tracking and, a few years later, added historical trend reporting and software-usage monitoring. It has sold more than 10,000 PC licenses at more than 15,000 sites worldwide, for a product line including four asset tracking products and two software suites–TS.Census License Compliance Suite and Cenergy Client Management Suite. High-profile customers include American Honda, Gap, Inc., Visa, Louis Vuitton, Welch's, and the Detroit Public Schools.
For Tally Systems, the deal with Novell brings exposure to Novell's broad customer base, an expanded sales staff and deeper pockets, as well as the stability of being part of a larger company. It gives Novell and partners the opportunity to sell upgrades to the 38-million-seat customer base of the ZENworks product line. On May 2, the company launched ZENworks Asset Management (formerly TS.Census), at a promotional price of $25 per seat, 25 percent off the $33 list price. It includes tools for discovery, inventory, license management, software usage and trend analysis.
ZENworks Asset Management will have some integration with ZENworks 7.0, due in June. Tally technology will reportedly be integrated into the ZENworks suite later. This suite automates IT management processes over the lifecycle of handhelds, laptops, desktops and servers. It is unique in that it has extensive support for Linux as well as Windows.
Despite some feature overlap, Tally's products strengthen the ZENworks systems management line. They are more advanced and effective than comparable Novell products, with superior tools for inventory discovery, identification and reporting. This saves users time, energy and money.
Asset tracking is a particularly critical function in this era of Sarbanes–Oxley government regulation and compliance audits by software vendors. Asset management and Linux are central components to Novell's growth strategy, adding new hope for the company after years of losing ground to Microsoft in the network operating system market (NetWare versus Windows NT). Novell has a powerful ally in its push into the Linux market–IBM invested $50 million in Novell when Novell bought SuSE in 2003.
Success with acquisitions is never easy, but Novell's small acquisitions of Tally Systems, SuSE and Ximian are easier to integrate than larger acquisitions. Still, Novell cannot afford to lose these companies' founders and key employees, critical to carrying on the vision, developing new products and maintaining customer relationships.
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