Ipswitch Readies Upgrade Of Network Management App

WhatsUp Gold 8.0, scheduled to ship by February, will include the ability to view and monitor network log files, enabling users to gauge performance trends, said Roger Greene, president of Ipswitch, based here.

"You can start to see patterns, look for more subtle problems and use the information for analysis to figure out what structurally about the network is having problems," Greene said.

Without automated log file monitoring, the task of tapping network devices for historical performance data can be an intensive manual process, said Ted Atkinson, director of operational services at 3rd Millennium Group, a network integrator in Richmond, Va. "You would have to do some serious drilling, and you'd have to do it manually. Depending on the device, it could be next to impossible," Atkinson said.

Version 8.0 also will include selective auto-discovery of devices on the network so administrators can extract data only on the devices they want to see, Greene said. "If you have a huge network but are the router guy, you can set it to just show the routers," he said. "Otherwise, you could get hundreds of devices, and you'd have to select the devices you wanted on your map."

Gary Hopkins, president of Intelek Technologies, a Norman, Okla.-based solution provider, said his company's sales of WhatsUp Gold have doubled year over year. "It's easy to use, easy to implement, and it's not as expensive as some of the other products out there," he said.

Ipswitch is now beta-testing Version 8.0 and plans to train partners on the upgrade about a month before its release, Hopkins said.

Plans call for Ipswitch to maintain its current pricing for WhatsUp Gold, which costs $795 or $1,090 with a service agreement. The vendor also plans to tweak its channel program by doubling sales volume requirements, said Brian Landrigan, vice president of sales.

At the end of the year, Ipswitch will require Premier partners to sell at least $4,000 per month, up from $2,000, and will require VAR Plus partners to sell at least $2,000 per month, up from $1,000, Landrigan said. The company plans to increase volume requirements for authorized partners because it's gaining more traction with solution providers, he said.