Zenprise Announces General Availability of Automated Exchange Management Solution

Solution resolves problems that were previously taking weeks to diagnose

Fremont, CA -- September 26, 2005 -- Today Zenprise, Inc. announced the immediate availability of its product designed to provide real-time, automated diagnosis and resolution of operational problems across the Microsoft Exchange environment.

Zenprise automatically provides resolutions to complex e-mail problems, which enables enterprises to spend less time and money manually troubleshooting issues while simultaneously improving overall service levels. Zenprise’s patent-pending Correlation, Causation™ and Correction™ technology and application-aware approach assess the health of the Exchange ecosystem, pinpoint the underlying cause of application and performance problems and automatically provide administrators with detailed resolution instructions.

Beta versions of the Zenprise solution have been deployed in many large enterprises since May of 2005. Results from these implementations have proven Zenprise’s ability to reduce the complexity and cost of managing e-mail while increasing end user service levels.

Jean-Pierre Garbani, vice president, Forrester Research, said, “Application and infrastructure management automation are among the most difficult steps in building Organic IT. Startup Zenprise combines the available practical experience and data into a product that makes Microsoft Exchange easier to manage. Zenprise’s eponymous product should both improve Exchange service levels and free up resources for other uses. But this isn’t just about Exchange -- Zenprise provides a model for automating the management of other IT services.”

From Weeks to Seconds: Automatically Resolving E-mail Problems

Throughout beta implementations, Zenprise found that many customers were experiencing similar errors in sending, receiving, or viewing e-mail. These errors required the system administrator to analyze multiple infrastructure components such as Active Directory, DNS, and network devices to pinpoint the cause of the problem, a process which can be unduly tedious and time consuming. The customers’ monitoring systems were able to detect numerous errors across the infrastructure. Zenprise complimented these systems by automatically correlating errors across the infrastructure components to not only quickly detect the underlying cause of these errors, but also to provide detailed resolution steps to the administrator. The automated diagnosis and resolution of the problem allowed the issue to be resolved in minutes, rather than the hours, days, or weeks that could be traditionally spent troubleshooting.

For example, Zenprise proactively detected the underlying cause of a problem that would otherwise prevent a beta customer’s users from accessing their e-mail. After correlating and grouping related errors across the infrastructure, Zenprise’s Causation™ Algorithms automatically performed diagnostics to conclude that the errors seen on Exchange were in fact caused by the interaction between Exchange, the Domain Controller, and the Global Catalogue. Several internal IT resources previously spent weeks trying to detect the underlying cause of the problem. Upon install, Zenprise immediately detected the cause of the problem and provided the customer with detailed resolution steps required to remediate the problem.

“Zenprise has a unique ability to find and resolve complex problems that aren’t easy to detect,” said Larry LaBas, director of IT operations at SonicWALL. “We were surprised at the problems Zenprise predicted and resolved instantly. Our users rely on Exchange to be available 24/7. With Zenprise, we were able to find and fix problems before any users were affected. That’s an immediate value.”

“E-mail is not just mission-critical, it is the must-work killer application for businesses today and the distributed applications and network infrastructure supporting MS Exchange can be very complex” said Zenprise CEO Jayaram Bhat. “We’ve brought the best minds on Exchange and systems management together to create a product that quickly and accurately diagnoses and resolves e-mail problems.”

Zenprise Solution and Features

Zenprise develops historical performance baselines unique to a customer’s environment to proactively predict fault and performance problems. The powerful Correlation Algorithms intelligently group all symptoms uncovered across the entire Exchange environment.

Using its Causation algorithms, Zenprise matches correlated symptoms to several potential causes. The Causation Algorithms then automatically run tests to determine the true underlying cause of application and performance problems. Lastly, the Correction Algorithms provide detailed and customized resolution instructions to ensure a quick path to remediation. Both the Causation and Correction Algorithms rely on a Symptom Database which catalogues all known Exchange symptoms with their underlying causes. This database is dynamically updated so that customers always have the most up to date definitions of problems and resolutions.

Zenprise includes these unique features:

  • Application-aware management: Zenprise provides an application perspective on Exchange management. It provides a deep understanding of Exchange combined with knowledge of the enterprise’s unique Exchange environment.

  • Predictive Analysis: Zenprise works in conjunction with a customer’s existing monitoring solution to collect application, system and end user usage levels over time. Using this information, Zenprise creates a performance baseline and uses predictive analysis to resolve impending problems.

  • Patent-Pending Correlation, Causation, and Correction Algorithms: Zenprise compliments Correlation with Causation and Correction algorithms to more quickly and accurately diagnose and resolve e-mail problems.

  • Dynamically Updated Symptom Database: This database contains real-world operational intelligence that catalogues all known Exchange symptoms with their underlying causes. The database feeds the Causation and Correction algorithms to enable accurate diagnosis and resolution of e-mail problems. The Symptom Database is dynamically updated every time new Exchange-related problems are discovered.

  • Step-by-step Path to Resolution: Zenprise pinpoints the cause of problems, then uses Correction algorithms to provide administrators with precise resolution instructions.

  • Integration with Existing Monitoring Systems: Zenprise integrates with a customer’s existing monitoring systems, including Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), NetIQ’s AppManager, HP OpenView, CA Unicenter, and IBM Tivoli.

Zenprise can be deployed with a Zenprise collector agent on Exchange servers, or in agentless mode. Up and running in minutes, the software automatically installs itself in the customer environment.

Pricing, Demos

Pricing starts at $15 per user per year, and includes support, subscription updates, and Zenprise software for as many Exchange servers as there are in the customer environment.

To view a demonstration of the product, visit http://www.zenprise.com

About Zenprise

Zenprise provides service-management software that delivers real-time, automated diagnosis and resolution of problems across the Microsoft Exchange environment. For more information, go to http://www.zenprise.com.

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