As we suspected, Computer Associates chose CA+World to show off TND – The New Dimension – a souped up version of its three dimensional RealWorld Interface for the first time. TND will use the neural network technology CA picked up from its AI Ware acquisition at the end of last year to theoretically provide time as the new dimension to its Unicenter TNG systems management suite (CI No 3,315). Although TND will not ship until some time in 1999, CA says that it will offer some time predictive capabilities within TNG as an add-on option in TNG 2.2. The agents will have limited functionality, being geared towards network performance, but once TND is released, CA says it will have come up with a network and systems management system that goes beyond server management to routers, hubs et al. Details are still unclear, but given the timescale and complexity of integration involved, CA is likely to have to re-write a substantial proportion of the TNG code. What has been decided is that the company will use its own Jasmine object database as the object repository for the client front-end. Neural Network Agents, or Neugents in CA speak, will then be able to perform historic and future analysis to govern the state of a network systems and management infrastructure. The TNG add-on will run on Windows NT and will also be Web-based, so that existing Unicenter customers without NT will have an alternative front-end. It will be offered as an upgrade to these customers. Still in beta, CA says that the TNG Neugent option will ship soon but is unprepared to give a time scale.
