iConclude Announces Availablity of OpsForce 2.1
OpsForce 2.1 marks next-generation of IT run book automation
Bellevue, WA, November 1, 2006 -- iConclude today announced the availability of OpsForce 2.1, an innovative automation platform that automates critical IT processes and delivers the vision of run book automation in IT data centers.
By automating incident resolution, process integration, and common maintenance tasks, iConclude OpsForce empowers IT operations to deliver superior IT service levels at reduced costs. With dynamic drill-down views for ITIL reporting, new intuitive run book execution interfaces, enhanced enterprise capabilities for high scalability and reliability, and over 1,000 out-of-box automation operations, customers will benefit from unprecedented visibility and control in their mission-critical IT environments.
"iConclude OpsForce is helping to push IT tasks such as alert and incident resolution to frontline IT workers. Some of our leading customers deal with millions of alerts that previously were directly escalated or even largely ignored - this resulted in substantial business impact. Customers are turning to iConclude to help tackle this challenge so they can shift from reactive incident resolution to proactive incident prevention," said Sunny Gupta, CEO of iConclude. "OpsForce 2.1 pushes the envelope and promises to unleash a new level of innovation to IT operations professionals worldwide. Highly scalable and reliable, OpsForce 2.1 is ready to become the backbone of today’s most demanding data center processes."
"With OpsForce 2.1, iConclude has taken IT automation to the next level,” said Jim Johnson, CIO of eSpeed, the premier technology provider for the world’s financial markets and a spin off from Cantor Fitzgerald. "At eSpeed, we're proud of the fact that OpsForce is powering our mission-critical infrastructures and applications, enabling us to deliver improved service levels in the face of rapid business growth and increasing technology complexity. OpsForce automation solutions just may become a strategic differentiator that drives eSpeed’s continued success as the definitive marketplace technology provider for the financial capital markets of the world."
“[Run book automation] products are focused on automating IT operations management by providing the ability to design, build, orchestrate, administer and report on workflows that support IT operations processes. This has become a critical need that cannot be met by existing IT management approaches, such as traditional job scheduling or custom scripting” said David Williams, research vice president, Gartner. “RBA products are also focused on making the automation workflow task easier by providing end-to-end views of the IT management process supported by workflow reporting, hiding script complexity with wizards and integrating and instrumenting the supporting workflow tasks using wizards to set policy.”
OpsForce 2.1: A New Wave of Innovation
OpsForce 2.1 features dynamic drill down reports for enhanced ITIL reporting. The recently released analytics and visualization capabilities enable sophisticated trending analysis for incident and problem management. IT managers can slice and dice incident data by operating system, application, business unit, and even down to each individual configuration item. This level of analysis provides unparalleled ITIL incident and problem visibility and empowers IT management with the data they need to stop firefighting and to start proactively preventing problems.
OpsForce 2.1 also includes a new intuitive run-book execution user interface. Based on the dramatic user interface improvements in both the OpsForce Central Web application and OpsForce Studio, IT operations technicians can now see at a glance how their resolution processes are modeled. This enhancement helps with training and knowledge management and minimizes the ramp time for new operations employees.
New enterprise scalability features and enhancements allow OpsForce 2.1 to work within the largest data center environments and easily support the throughput and reliability required to support mission-critical infrastructures and applications. From the platform support perspective, OpsForce 2.1 is now tested and certified on most common Linux operating systems, in addition to Windows.
In addition, OpsForce 2.1 continues to expand iConclude’s library of out-of-the-box content in the form of Accelerator Packs and pre-packaged automation templates and flows. Some of the latest content additions include the Network Accelerator Pack, Windows Server Diagnostic Flows, and more operations for SQL Server, Cisco Routers, etc.
OpsForce Platform
iConclude’s OpsForce Platform empowers frontline IT staff to resolve data-center incidents and alerts in a repeatable, visually guided way, decreasing time to resolution and minimizing support costs. iConclude OpsForce sits between existing monitoring and service desk solutions and executes resolution procedures for incidents and alerts as they are detected. Running in either fully automated or visually guided mode, these automated procedures can acknowledge alerts, create tickets, run troubleshooting tests, take repair actions, and eventually close tickets and clear alerts, creating a closed-loop, end-to-end incident resolution process.
OpsForce Accelerator Packs
As extensions of the OpsForce platform, iConclude Accelerator Packs™ jumpstart OpsForce deployments with out-of-the-box content for common data center environments. Accelerator Packs™ contain pre-configured operations and automation flows that deliver immediate diagnosis and repair capabilities to help address common problems. Designed with flexibility and extensibility in mind, iConclude Accelerator Packs can be easily customized by OpsForce customers and the IT community at large.
Availability
iConclude OpsForce is generally available beginning Nov 1, 2006. Pricing starts at $50k. For more information, please contact iConclude at (425)709-7141.
About the Run Book Automation Software Market
Run book automation is a newly emerging category identified by Gartner. The need for these software solutions is being driven by today’s large IT organizations that are dealing with millions of alerts on a regular basis. The vast volume makes it difficult for operations groups to adequately respond, impacting the availability of mission-critical applications. With businesses demanding ever-increasing service levels and cost pressures continuously driving headcount flat, it is more pressing than ever for IT organizations to look to new and innovative ways to manage their data center processes.
An analysis of the largest data centers has shown that the majority of incidents/alerts and routine tasks can be handled automatically, which would enable system administrators to proactively tackle more strategic IT challenges. To deliver scalable support for business growth, IT operations must automate and proactively manage their data centers. And, next-generation Run Book Automation software such as iConclude OpsForce enables IT operations teams to maximize service levels while reducing costs.
About iConclude.
iConclude’s OpsForce provides automated incident resolution that increases ITIL incident and problem management visibility, reduces escalations, minimizes false alerts, and streamlines the resolution process. iConclude’s managed automation technology self-heals systems and enables frontline operations and support teams to diagnose, repair, and maintain business-critical applications in a guided and repeatable way. Founded in 2005, For more information, please visit http://www.iconclude.com