nLayers Introduces First IT Service Discovery Solution with Network, Storage Mapping to Insight 4.5
nLayers raises the bar in it service discovery; releases industry's most comprehensive solution
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- December 5, 2005 -- nLayers today announced nLayers InSight 4.5, the latest version of its award-winning application discovery and mapping solution. With this release, nLayers is introducing storage and network discovery capabilities to InSight, making it the first solution capable of discovering, mapping and tracking all service components -- software, servers, storage and network devices -- in a single, comprehensive view.
As IT operations departments strive to adopt a more business-oriented management approach, they grapple with the challenge of tracking IT services that span technology areas that are traditionally managed as separate entities. By automatically discovering and illustrating all the components and dependencies that make up an IT service, including the network and storage tiers, nLayers InSight 4.5 provides a foundation for improving service delivery, reducing operational waste, understanding the impact of IT changes and complying with financial and security regulations.
"To provide any real value, a discovery solution must be capable of automatically rendering a complete picture of the largest, most complex enterprise, including all servers, devices, software, and network elements," said Jean-Pierre Garbani, vice president at Forrester Research. "A partial snapshot of one tier or a set of components simply isn't enough to enable organizations to succeed in implementing many of today's most critical, enterprise-wide business/IT initiatives. nLayers InSight is solving a really difficult problem."
nLayers InSight is an agentless real-time solution that plugs into the data center and automatically discovers and maps the complex relationships between applications and technology infrastructure, providing an end-to-end "living model" of the IT environment. Enhancements in version 4.5 extend the breadth and depth of nLayers InSight's discovery capabilities while increasing the solution's scalability and ease-of-use. New features include:
Native discovery of layer-2 and -3 devices. nLayers InSight 4.5 is the first application discovery solution to include native discovery of network and storage devices and their dependencies, demand and usage. The addition of layer-2 and -3 discovery capabilities gives customers a more complete view into how business services are delivered.
Active Discovery Enhancements. Further extending the breadth of devices nLayers InSight can scan for detailed configuration information, version 4.5 includes two new active discovery features. The addition of user-controlled, agentless IP scanning enables nLayers InSight to discover any device with an IP address. A new Telnet scanner makes it possible for InSight to discover components -- such as switches and other network or storage devices -- that cannot be accessed using other scanning methods. The Active Discovery Engine is part of nLayers InSight's unique, hybrid discovery technology and employs a combination of methods, including SNMP, SSH, WMI, and now Telnet and IP. Whether in active or passive mode, nLayers InSight is the only completely agentless discovery solution that offers instant, end-to-end IT visibility through a completely passive deployment along with the ability to selectively apply active discovery to "drill down" for very detailed information on specific services or components.
Extended Fingerprint Factory Capabilities. nLayers has extended InSight's ability to automatically discover custom and legacy applications by enabling customers to easily create port and service-based fingerprints through a graphical wizard. Using the "Fingerprint Factory," customers can easily create "Fingerprints," the identifiers that enable nLayers to automatically discover an application, and add them to the nLayers Fingerprint Knowledge Base.
With version 4.5, nLayers has made it even easier to define a business application and create a new fingerprint even in environments with complex custom applications and mainframe platforms. Unlike other discovery solutions that rely on configuration files or blueprints of known, unmodified packaged applications to define a business application, nLayers InSight 4.5 tracks the actual interaction of an application, making it possible to map and "fingerprint" any custom application, regardless of language or platform.
About nLayers
nLayers InSight is a comprehensive solution for discovering, understanding, and mapping the complex relationships between applications and technology infrastructure. nLayers' discovery solution combines passive and active discovery approaches to provide an end-to-end, "living" model of the IT environment that continuously tracks resource dependencies, demand, usage, and service levels. Learn more about nLayers at http://www.nlayers.com.