Havant, Hampshire-based Greenscreen Ltd has launched Incontrol Security security and access control software for network workstations and stand-alone personal computers. The product offers multiple configurable layers of control, which restrict users’ access to the hardware and software resources they require to perform their jobs. By this means, says Greenscreen, network managers can thwart unauthorised access with all the associated threats of data theft, viruses, software piracy and system damage. Features include floppy disk access control; MS-DOS exit control; hard disk lock; unauthorised application control (Authorised Exec) for MS-DOS and Windows; and unsuccessful log-in recording. The company claims that Incontrol security is compatible with its other system management offerings, including Incontrol Audit and Incontrol Desktop, eliminating the problems users face if they buy security and auditing products from different vendors. The range is available for a stand-alone personal computer at UKP80, for a five-user network at UKP400, a 20-user network at UKP600, and at UKP85 per workstation for any number.database management – and in a heterogeneous environment because no one is installing just HP or Sun or IBM boxes in isolation. The company currently has about 25 customers in the US, including Burlington Coat Factory and US West. But Compuware, Howorth said, provided it with an immediate infrastructure to distribute our products. Sales will be conducted in two ways: as an adjunct to Compuware’s existing direct sales team; and via third parties, particularly systems integrators.
By Catherine Everett
The framework or architecture is called EcoSphere. It is object-oriented and written in C. Ecosphere runs on any Motif-compliant Unix machine or console, hanging off a node in the customer’s TCP/IP network. Sitting in the EcoSphere framework are objects, or EcoTools, that have their own unique identifier or function. Functions include configuration management, fault and performance management, capacity planning, security management and management reporting. When told to by the systems, network or database administrator, these objects which each have their own Internet Protocol address so they know which machine to go to – fly off down the network to their destination. There they perform their task and send information back to the console. If something has gone wrong, for example the CPU of a particular box may be running too fast, then the systems administrator can pre-set what corrective action he wants the system to take. Furthermore, EcoTools integrate with physical network management products, such as Sun Microsystems Inc’s NetManager or IBM Corp’s NetView 6000 because they use standard Unix remote procedure calls to communicate with the network products’ SNMP interfaces. One of the major advantage of the EcoTools system, according to Compuware’s Sedgwick, is that it drastically cuts down on personnel costs by providing the tools to address productivity problems. While Unix hardware and software may be much cheaper than their mainframe equivalents, systems management costs are much higher because staff are needed to look after each separate part of that system. Unix, Sedgewick suggested, is just starting to grow up. It is facing the same productivity issues that mainframes experienced in the 1970s. This is, in fact, one of the major barriers to downsizing for users, he declared.
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And Howorth reckons the market for these products is such that, by 1997 the group will generate about $50m in revenues for Compuware – the latter’s turnover was some $235m in 1992. So far, EcoTools work with Oracle Corp release 6 and 7 databases, but EcoSystems does plan to port to both Sybase Inc and Informix Corp databases by the end of the year because these are the most popular and together with Oracle account for about 80% of the market for relational databases. EcoTools also support Sun, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sequent Computer Systems Corp, Intel Corp-based Santa Cruz Operation Inc, Pyramid Technology
Inc and NCR Corp Unix servers, but Howorth says others will be added based on customer demand. Although pricing of the EcoTools product depends on configuration and the number of users, Howorth said that a version of the product running on a single server supporting a small number of users would cost about $10,000.
