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Windmill Networks Launches First Data Integration Tool to Improve Network Management Applications

Posted on: Monday, 2 March 2009, 07:00 CST

Tech Startup To Help Network Managers Improve Operational Efficiency By Turning Network Applications Into Cohesive Management System

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Windmill Networks, the market leader in network management integration technology, announced today the launch of the Windmill Networks Integration Manager (WIM). WIM gathers collections of network management applications into a seamless network management system and shares these resources across network applications without the usual lengthy and custom integration effort that enterprises endure today. Once installed on the network, WIM creates a streamlined network management system, allowing information supplied to operations to be better, outages to be shorter, and application changes to take less effort.

Windmill Networks was founded after years of listening to customer feedback concerning the sometimes draconian ways of managing a network and the various applications that help keep it working. Today's enterprises contain a number of network management tools that fail to interoperate. These tools can include CiscoWorks for element management, HP OpenView for performance reporting, IBM NetCool for service management, etc. While each of these tools performs its core functions well, they are not optimized to add, eliminate, change and/or synchronize elements, and as a result, many wasted man hours and budget are spent making these changes within the network.

"As more man hours and budget are required to oversee networks that are being run by multiple network management applications, Windmill Networks has produced a new tool that can significantly reduce these business costs by turning the applications into a cohesive system," said Fred Gray, CEO of Windmill Networks. "The introduction of Windmill Networks Integration Manager into the market provides a way to share resources across these multiple network applications without the usual lengthy and custom integration efforts, while at the same time not becoming a 'manager of managers'."

Automating Network Integration

With the introduction of Windmill Networks Integration Manager, network operations staff is able to gain control of network information. This added control can save network staff hundreds of man hours per year. Enhanced network element addition makes updates to the network as much as 40% faster than the process used by either CiscoWorks or SolarWinds. This is achieved by WIM simplifying the sequence of installing new elements to the network.

How Windmill Networks Integration Manager works:

The Windmill Networks Integration Manager Appliance (WIM) is the core of the company's system. It hosts the web/AJAX-based user interface and maintains a common database of all of the network information and the relationships between applications and network information, which can be a resource for pulling ad-hoc and routine reports. It also initiates all communications with the software agents running on the other systems. The product is appliance-based to minimize installation effort and ongoing maintenance. Both a physical appliance and a VMware software appliance is offered, and all data will reside on the customer's network. To ensure usability across all standards-compliant browsers, WIM utilized industry standard web-based tools such as Ruby on Rails, AJAX, and Javascript.

Pricing and Availability

Windmill Networks Integration Manager is available for purchase and installation today, with prices ranging from $5,000 to $100,000, depending on the size of the network.

About Windmill Networks

Founded in 2007, Windmill Networks is a provider of network management technology that helps improve data integration between network management applications. Its flagship product, Windmill Networks Integration Manager, is the first appliance to greatly reduce the manual steps in maintaining network management applications and creates a true interoperable system that helps share resources across the network without being a "manager of managers". Windmill Networks doesn't manage the network, it makes the products that manage the network operate better.

Windmill Networks is based in Huntsville, Alabama, and can be located online at www.windmillnetworks.com.

SOURCE Windmill Networks

Source: PR Newswire

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