Listen to the column Network management Vegas style, or visit our Podcast Center to hear more by James Gaskin.

No, this doesn't mean management is a crap shoot, or that you get free drinks when you're losing. It does mean I attended the Altiris ManageFusion07 user conference in Las Vegas earlier this month, and learned some interesting things from users and resellers (and even Altiris executives).



Of course, resellers and customers don't spend the time and money going to conferences for products they hate, so our poll subjects are "self-skewing" in that they like Altiris already. But the reasons they like the Altiris suite of network management products still provides some good information for the rest of us.



Technically, I appreciate the use of a central database for all operations by all modules of Altiris software. Called the CMDB for Configuration Management Data Base, this repository holds every detail collected by search and inventory modules, and feeds every report and task list used by action modules. The initial inventory sweeps take some resources and generate network traffic, but you don't have the constant searching and churning some other products create looking for information for reports and tagging assets. The database of network inventory information provides the central tent pole for all future operations.



Every reseller I spoke with uses only Altiris for management product sales and consulting. Several resellers cracked huge accounts following the client's interest in better network asset management using Altiris. Those types of resellers have some money to gamble with in Vegas, thanks to Altiris, and they're happy to say so.



The one questionable decision Altiris made was putting me on the editor's panel discussing Vista migration. To their credit, Altiris folks kept me on the panel when they read my blog stating my opinion of Vista (Run away! Run away!). Turns out many in the audience also regard Vista with high suspicion, and few are interested in jumping into the Vista pool until next year. That tells me Microsoft will sweat and struggle (and probably stop XP support) before they manage to convert us all.

Symantec just purchased Altiris, and the mood of attendees was cautiously optimistic. At least for now, Altiris will remain a separate business unit and continue their currently winning ways. Let's hope Symantec executives learn from some of the customer-friendly practices that made Altiris successful, and keep their heavy management hands in their deep pockets.

ITworld.com

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