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Shavlik Technologies Announces Solutions that Simplify the Management of Virtual and Physical IT Environments

Shavlik Technologies, a global leader in simplifying the complexity of IT management, today announced solutions that provide a streamlined approach to controlling all physical and virtual machines on a network. The company introduced enhanced versions of its leading NetChk Protect product – NetChk Protect 7.8 and NetChk vProtect and – which are optimized for virtualized environments. In addition, Shavlik announced it is enabling an easy migration path as VMware moves operating system (OS) and application patching out of its vCenter solution. With these announcements, Shavlik becomes the first company to provide small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs) a comprehensive solution for managing physical and virtual machines regardless of their state, i.e. online or offline. It also becomes the only company that can replace the VMware Update Manager (VUM) functionality for customers of VMware virtual machines (VMs).

“For all sizes of businesses, virtualization transforms the way organizations extend their IT infrastructure,” said Chris Christiansen, Program Vice President, IDC. “However, managing physical and virtual machines is a complex challenge, especially for small and medium businesses. Because they may lack IT expertise, SMBs need easy-to-use and intuitive IT management solutions. With these announcements today, Shavlik provides robust tools and expertise to help SMBs with virtualization management.”

While virtualization is growing in popularity, it can also lead to challenges, especially for SMBs. One recent phenomenon, VM sprawl, stems from the ease of which virtual machines can be created without the knowledge of IT administrators. If machines exist without the proper monitoring, which currently is impossible if an unaccounted for machine is turned off, businesses risk the attachment of unknown machines and software applications that can jeopardize network security.

“Security remains one of the larger IT management concerns and will continue to be an important part of the equation,” said Mark Shavlik, President and CEO, Shavlik Technologies. “Though with the evolution of IT environments, and namely the advent of virtualization, we are finding that our customers’ pain points are rapidly growing. We are finding more than ever they need an integrated solution that allows them to manage, migrate, measure and mentor their increasingly complex infrastructure. With our strong expertise providing patch management solutions, as evidenced by the products announced today, we aim to execute on this vision by working with our SMB customers to solve their broader IT management challenges.”

Best-in-Class Virtualization Management Solutions

Shavlik is providing solutions that simplify virtualization management by allowing IT staff, including all users of VMware virtual machines, to control all physical and virtual machines connected to a network, regardless of their operating state.

  • Shavlik NetChk Protect (v7.8)
    • Shavlik’s NetChk Protect 7.8 uses a unique agentless technology to find all VMs that may have been created within an organization’s IT environment.
      • Discovering and patching these VMs (on-line, off-line or templates) provides the power to manage and protect them.
    • Advanced capabilities in NetChk Protect 7.8 allow administrators to also manage snapshots of their VMs both before and after patching to ensure they always have a current and relevant snapshot available for roll-back and/or disaster recovery.
    • In addition, users will have the ability to queue virtual machine patching, allowing users to avoid bogging down the server if multiple VMs are patched simultaneously.
    • Additional enhancements to NetChk Protect 7.8 include:
      • Service Pack deployment improvements for agents
        • Includes checkpoint restart capabilities to limit the bandwidth usage and ensure seamless download of large patches and service packs.
      • Performance and functionality improvements around initial data download, SQL management, import of results and antivirus.
      • The ability to patch additional products (including some Apple products, Adobe, etc.) due to the new archive patch/file type handling.
    • NetChk Protect 7.8 is priced starting at $27.00 per machine (per year) and is available in early March 2011.
  • Shavlik NetChk vProtect
    • This streamlined version of the company’s leading NetChk Protect solution provides the same patch management functionality for virtual machines announced as part of NetChk Protect 7.8.
    • NetChk vProtect becomes the industry’s first solution to ease the transition from VMware Update Manager (VUM).
      • Shavlik is enabling an easy migration path as VMware moves OS and application patching out of vCenter.
      • Shavlik NetChk vProtect is currently the only product available that can replace this VUM functionality for virtual machines.
    • Shavlik is currently offering one free CPU license (10 seats) with the purchase of NetChk vProtect. Additional licenses start at $450.00 for a 3 CPU license (per year). The product is available in early March 2011.

Today’s announcements support Shavlik’s strategy to simplify the complexity of IT management for SMBs. The democratization of IT and emergence of virtualization are creating a range of challenges that require a new approach to IT management. While patch management remains an important part of Shavlik’s solution to these increased complexities, the company’s vision moving forward involves providing solutions that enable SMBs to manage, migrate, measure and mentor its infrastructure. In doing so, Shavlik is bringing the power of enterprise solutions to SMBs.

Published Monday, February 28, 2011 6:56 PM by David Marshall
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