Atlanta, GA (April 4^th, 2011) – Stonebranch, Inc. today announced the release of new versions of their suite of workload automation products: Indesca, Infitran, and OpsWise Automation Center.

These releases have been delivered just 80 days after the announced merger of Stonebranch and OpsWise Software. As of this release, Indesca job scheduling agents and Infitran managed file transfer agents are now fully integrated into Automation Center – providing Automation Center with new platform integrations and managed file transfer capabilities.

“While we remain committed to interoperability with any scheduling platform, Automation Center provides an alternative solution to legacy implementations,” Says John Mecke, COO of Stonebranch. “Now, with the integration of the Stonebranch product portfolio, our customers have the opportunity to replace or augment their aging scheduling environment while retaining 100% of their investment in Indesca and Infitran agents – making it the most affordable method of transitioning to a modern workload automation platform.”

OpsWise Automation Center is an industry-awarded workload automation solution for its innovative web-based architecture and ease of use. The product provides automation for environments that span from z/OS to distributed systems and even to cloud-based solutions.

In addition to product integration, the release also introduces application state management and system resource monitoring; enabling you to monitor and react to changes in the infrastructure that could impact an organization’s workload.

“In a market where companies typically take years to integrate technology from new acquisitions, we have achieved the same result in weeks,” explains Wolfgang Bothe, founder and CEO of Stonebranch Inc. “We have kept our focus on delivering new and innovative workload solutions to our customers – this is the first step towards achieving our vision for a new era in workload automation”.

After an extensive Quality Assurance cycle, FireScope Unify version 4.3 has reached release status. In addition to several new major features, this version has undergone extensive performance tuning to make it the fastest version of FireScope Unify to date.

New Feature Highlight:

• HTML5-based mind maps for Network Topology, Service Explorer and Virtual Environment. Flash is no longer required to use these features.
• NetApp Mangeability 4.0 SDK Support enabling FireScope Unify to connect directly to filers, NetApp Operations Manager and more.
• Centralized Credentials Management to simplify configuration of SNMP, VMWare, NetApp and other API connection credentials.
• Integration of API’s with Discovery which enable Discovery scans to use API’s to enrich discovery results and improve automated configuration of monitoring.
• Performance Scorecard screens provide insight into the performance of your appliance’s data collection capabilities, arming you with the information you need to tune configuration to achieve maximum performance.

Read the complete release notes here. Customers with active maintenance and support agreements can update their appliances through the Appliance Management Interface starting today. Should you require assistance with updating your FireScope deployment, or have any questions about this release, please email info@proxima-software.com .

This interesting whitepaper comes from our partners and friends Scalable Software.

Article reproduced courtesy Mark Cresswell Scalable Software.

An increasing number of vendors (including Scalable) are offering elements of the IT Asset Management stack that are deployed inside public cloud environments. These include IT Service Management, Software License Management systems, Network Discovery and Inventory, IT Asset Tracking and others. The deployment of ITAM in the cloud represents a perfect storm of reasons for security concerns to surface. The fundamental question of data privacy always emerges in the context of SaaS, but where ITAM in the cloud is concerned this is compounded by the nature of the data. Specifically, ITAM data can contain information about IT systems that in the wrong hands could weaken an organizations defense against hacking. Information relating to internal network layouts; the location of critical systems; connections to the broader internet; patch levels for key machines and many other similar items are best kept away from blackhat hackers.

For many organizations these facts are enough to move cloud-based ITAM off the planning sheets; there are no counter-arguments that would overcome a visceral initial reaction to the risk profile outlined above.

However, if implemented correctly, ITAM in the cloud is not only a highly secure proposition, it also enables benefits that are simply not possible for traditional on-premise tools. If you have an open mind about security of cloud-based tools what follows will hopefully serve as a useful primer in the debate.

Discovery Credentials – Most organizations lock down access to the protocols often used for discovery in such a way that only network admins can run them. Although credentials can be securely maintained in cloud databases, it is important to enable discovery to run without that requirement. Stated differently there should be an option to ensure that discovery credentials never leave the organizational security perimeter.

Data Encryption/Protection At Rest – obviously the database maintained by the system must be encrypted. However, the encryption key must be unique to the customer and not available outside of the customer application instance. Stated differently, were the database itself to fall into the wrong hands it would be useless. Unless the key itself was compromised, the only way to read the data should be through the application.

Data Encryption/Protection in Transit – similarly data in transit between the assets being managed and the instance of the SaaS environment must be encrypted.

Data Sovereignty – a consideration with SaaS implementation is who has legal jurisdiction over the data. Laws exist in most regimes that give law enforcement agencies rights to access data that is resident within their borders under certain circumstances. Determining where the data physically resides may be important in the context of your business.

Perimeter Security  – In this context I am referring to the technologies that prevent both Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and unauthorized system penetration by means other than the application (which is addresses by strong identity management and authentication). The SaaS provider itself must be able to verify that it has application layer and system layer firewall protection that will ensure that only authorized sessions can be established with the application layer. Furthermore the provider of the compute resources or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), which the application consumes, must be able to demonstrate that each machine image is protected from penetration and that the subnet the SaaS provider inhabits is further protected. IaaS providers such as Amazon EC2 go to great lengths to verify the latter aspect of this protection through independent assessment.  Denial of service (DoS) attacks are probably the area where the gap between SaaS tools and on-premise tools is the greatest. Since on-premise tools benefit from an organizations perimeter protection that prevents external access to internal tools, DoS attacks are virtually impossible. In the case of SaaS tools, at the very least login pages can be reached by anyone that is aware of a login URL. DoS attacks include such things as Main in the Middle (of which a variety of forms exist, and network saturation. The methods available to mitigate such attacks is a book unto itself and way beyond the scope of this post, however good SaaS and IaaS providers will have much to say when questioned on the topic, and it is certainly one worthy of extended discussion given the variety of approaches available.

Physical Security – As in all datacenters, physical security is an important consideration. The IaaS provider used by the SaaS vendor, should be able demonstrate robust physical security practices. Again, the larger IaaS providers have this process well documented and supported. Some SaaS vendors maintain their own hardware infrastructure, which doubles the burden of security, but it does mean the buck stops at just one door.

Identity Management – Managing and authenticating the users of the system is critical, and an area of great concern.  At no point in the process of provisioning a system should a user receive any communication that contains a password; this is a gigantic red-flag since it implies the password is either stored in clear or maintained using a symmetric encryption method. The SaaS vendor should have no access rights to the systems or the data, unless the customer explicitly grants those rights; neither should the vendor maintain an emergency back-door. All password-reset processes should be self-service. The customer should be able to see details of all system access and be solely responsible for granting such access – including standard role-based access rights.

Two-Factor Authentication – Simple userid/password combinations are simply not good enough for a variety of reasons beyond the scope of this post. Two-factor authentication, where either a device token or a unique, one-time ‘passticket’ is combined with a userid and password, has emerged as a way to dramatically strengthen the authentication process for SaaS applications.  Examples of this in action include the receipt of an SMS or email, with an alpha- numeric sequence, that must be entered alongside the userid and password within a certain amount of time after receipt; or the addition of a security token, which is stored on the endpoint device, to ensure that an authorized user can only access the system from an authorized device.

Mutual Handshaking – ITAM tools, which exist in the cloud, require an application proxy of some sort that exists behind the corporate firewall in order to perform network discovery, software inventory, and to integrate with procurement systems, service desks etc. The setup of this proxy is core to the security discussion as it is the pipe down which internal asset data flows. The proxy must not require non-standard corporate firewall behavior. The proxy must be the end of the connection that initiates the session and it must do so via whatever security polices are in place, such as a network proxy. The proxy must ‘know’ which SaaS application instance to connect to and should not support in any way configuration that would enable it to connect to a different instance. I.e. it is conceptually just an extension of an individual SaaS instance. The SaaS instance should be similarly constrained; it must not allow connections from application proxies spawned by other customer’s instances of the SaaS application.

Backup/Recovery – Backup and recovery systems are well-understood by most buyers of SaaS systems, so the point need not be elaborated other then to ensure that claimed recovery times should be verified. Many of the IaaS providers have hot standby and image reload capabilities built into the service they offer their SaaS customers. These systems are sophisticated and may not be present where a SaaS provider maintains its infrastructure.

Hardened Operating Environment – Hardening the operating environment is a generic term for a range of measures designed to close vulnerabilities in the operating system, and associated subsystems, that exist as a consequence of maintaining configuration flexibility. Any SaaS vendor with a well-architected system will have hardened their environment, but if you can establish this is not the case then some serious questions must be asked. A well-hardened operating environment will prevent password-based SSH logins for admins; stop unnecessary services from running; close all unnecessary ports at the OS level; implement AppArmor to ensure applications access only those systems resources to which they have been explicitly granted rights; encryption of the operating environment logical volume etc etc. The full list of hardening tactics is long and arcane, but represents a fundamental level of threat protection a good SaaS system cannot be without

Independent Verification – Regardless of the claims made by the SaaS or IaaS vendor, independent verification is vital. Well-managed organizations such as The Cloud Industry Forum and The Cloud Security Alliance have emerged to satisfy this need. In addition the AICPA has set out SAS 70 as benchmark for control procedures of service providers. The Type II extensions for SAS 70 can be applied to both SaaS and IaaS vendors that wish to demonstrate the strength of their Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC), intrusion detection systems (both physical and virtual) and other operation controls.

A question folks evaluating SaaS tools really need to get to grips with is whether their own organizations can claim strong support for the items listed here. The reality is that most (not all, but the good ones can demonstrate independent verification) SaaS and cloud infrastructure providers have realized that being fanatical about security is the only way they can prevail. Another way of looking at this point is that security is a fundamental element of the business of a SaaS provider in the same way that airplane maintenance is fundamental to an airline. Where a discipline is so central to a business model it tends to get taken very seriously.

Suncorp Realizes Business-Aligned Management of Guidewire ClaimCenter(R) Services and More With FireScope Unify(TM)

SYDNEY, January 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ –

- Rapid 30-day implementation of FireScope enabled Suncorp to manage 13 of their most critical business services for improved customer service

FireScope, a leading developer of Business Service Management solutions, announced today that Suncorp, one of Australia’s largest diversified financial services groups, is now utilizing FireScope Unify(TM) to manage IT operations to ensure optimal business outcomes.

The group, which serves over 9 million insurance and banking customers, was facing a challenge that impacts many CIO’s today: How to scale IT infrastructure to satisfy increasing demand, without impacting customer experience?

An early initiative to deliver management dashboards for Guidewire, Suncorp’s platform for managing insurance claims, using legacy monitoring tools found scope for improvement. As a result, Suncorp partnered with FireScope to deploy its Unify(TM) solution and delivered a single business service view in less than 5 days of starting the Proof Of Concept by leveraging and augmenting legacy monitoring tools.

“Suncorp now manages its entire Guidewire ClaimCenter environment – including storage, servers and applications – using FireScope. This approach gives Suncorp a ‘Business Services View’, which is a single view of all performance metrics and issues that provides it with a clear management advantage,” said Jeff Smith, CEO Suncorp Business Services.

Suncorp has now identified over 200 business critical services to be managed by FireScope Unify(TM).

“More than ever before, executives realize the competitive advantage of tightly aligning IT with business outcomes,” said Peter Molloy, VP Australia & New Zealand of FireScope. “FireScope discovers and monitors the relationships of IT services to the customers receiving them, by type, quality and business impact. I see many trying to get that outcome, but I’m yet to see others delivering on the promise in a timely or cost effective manner.”

More information, including an executive briefing that details FireScope’s approach to managing the Guidewire Insurance Suite can be found at http://www.firescope.com/Solutions/Guidewire/.

About FireScope:

FireScope, the fastest growing ITSM software company is a leading developer of groundbreaking IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions that are revolutionizing how businesses conduct IT operations. In addition to its Dash network and application monitoring solution, FireScope’s suite of products includes three primary enterprise offerings: Unify(TM) Business Service Management (BSM) – your dashboard for enterprise IT strategy; Orchestrate(TM) Configuration Management Database (CMDB) – your playbook for IT Operations; and Comply(TM) – your compass for managing IT compliance. FireScope Inc., headquartered in Huntington Beach, California has offices in Sydney, New York, Dallas and London. To learn more about FireScope and its advanced ITSM solutions, visit http://www.firescope.com or call +1-877-780-3473.

Distributed by PR Newswire on behalf of FireScope

Recently a prominent midlands County Council completed a Proof of Value (POV) assessment of Scalable Survey with Proxima Software Solutions.

The Council’s requirements were for a solution that would manage their entire estate of Desktop, Laptop and Server-based assets and applications; providing detailed asset, configuration and usage data for all devices.

The Council was keen to see cost savings in excess of 1 million pounds and wanted to position itself for new technologies and services e.g. VDI and SAAS based services. Audit and software license compliance were also key priorities.

The POV was conducted over a 30 day period with Scalable Survey agents being installed on 1,000 PC’s throughout the Council.

Scalable Survey collected asset, configuration and real usage data for all the hardware and software components installed on each PC. This data was automatically loaded and collated in the Scalable Survey database where the rich dataset was analysed using the detailed reporting and graphing that is integrated with Survey.

Scalable Survey’s key differentiator is its ability to collect rich user behaviour data which detailed exactly which applications had been used (including locally executed, thin client and web-based applications and services), for how long, and by which user. Survey also reported how each application was being used whether that was simple browsing (reading) or data entry (keying). Website usage, idle PCs, printer, monitor and USB dongle usage was also reported.

For this council, the POV revealed the following key savings:-

• Total projected saving of £1.29 million pounds in hardware and software costs over a 3 year period.
• ROI of 1124% with a payback of 2.3 months.
• Average cost saving per PC of £172.
• Complete control of its Desktop infrastructure
• Completely accurate software license compliance position
• Significant cost savings
• Better positioned for delivery of services.

This Council gained:-

We call this IT Asset Intelligence or IT Asset Management for the Real World!

What are you doing?

Unfortunately, if you are using one of the many other Asset Management products, you won’t be getting the rich user behaviour data that will enable you to make these big savings and plan for the future.

Your Council’s IT services are delivered through Citrix/Terminal Services?  - No other Asset Management product will give you the rich user behaviour data that tells you the exact software usage on your terminal servers and therefore you’re exact software license requirements, OR enable you to manage load and capacity from thorough understanding of user behaviour profiles.

Act now

Call us to discuss how Scalable Survey from Proxima Software Solutions can help you make big savings and gain control of your Desktop infrastructure.

Fastest Growing ITSM Software Company Ranked among BSM Elite

PR Newswire  HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., July 27

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., July 27 /PRNewswire/

 FireScope, Inc., (http://www.firescope.com), the fastest growing IT Service Management solutions software company, today announced that Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), a leading IT management research and consulting firm, has recognized FireScope as a “Strong Value” and a “Vendor to Watch” in its July 2010 research report entitled “EMA Radar for Business Service Management (BSM): Service Impact.”

FireScope was one of only 14 “BSM Elite” vendors to be selected for inclusion in this report, alongside Big-4 vendors HP, IBM and CA. “No one is more committed than FireScope to delivering cost effective BSM SI,” reported EMA vice president Dennis Drogseth, author of the research. In a related article in CIO Update, he added, “FireScope is a strong value and a great choice for price-sensitive BSM investments.”

According to the report, “FireScope is clearly committed to delivering BSM Service Impact solutions at fairly minimal cost and overhead in administration and deployment, and yet it offers a wide range of monitoring capabilities and a broad menu of approaches for third-party integration.”

A unique form factor is key to FireScope’s cost effective solutions. Delivered as a physical or virtual appliance, FireScope solutions already have the complete software stack installed and configured, including the operating system, the database and all application dependencies. This eliminates the need to purchase additional hardware or software licenses in order to deploy the solution, and deployments are able to bypass many of the requirements of traditional approaches. Also included is an Appliance Management Interface (AMI) that utilizes automation for common maintenance tasks, significantly reducing the amount of resources needed for ongoing maintenance and support.

 ”The solution itself started delivering instant payback from day one,” said Michael Leggiero, Enterprise Technology manager for Miller Group and a FireScope customer.

“We are honored that EMA has recognized FireScope’s solutions as a strong value and our focus on value without high cost or complexity,” said Steven Cotton, CEO of FireScope. “In these turbulent economic times, we’re seeing that organizations can no longer justify the high cost, complex deployment and high maintenance requirements of traditional approaches to BSM. FireScope delivers a cost effective approach to IT management and EMA’s report, combined with our triple digit growth rate, is validation that we are meeting our customer’s needs.”

This report was published prior to the launch of FireScope Dash, which has further expanded FireScope’s market reach. Starting at only $7,995 to manage up to 500 assets, and featuring a powerful discovery and auto-configuration system that delivers real-time dashboards in minutes, FireScope Dash has eliminated the price and integration risks for effective monitoring of small- to medium-sized organizations.

More information, including videos and a free 10-day trial, can be found at http://dash.firescope.com.

About FireScope FireScope, the fastest growing ITSM software company is a leading developer of groundbreaking IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions that are revolutionizing how businesses conduct IT operations.

In addition to its Dash network and application monitoring solution, FireScope’s suite of products includes three primary enterprise offerings:

 Business Service Management (BSM) – your dashboard for your enterprise IT strategy;

Configuration Management Database (CMDB) – your playbook for IT Operations;

Compliance – your compass for managing IT compliance.

FireScope Inc., headquartered in Huntington Beach, California has offices in Sydney, New York, Dallas and London. To learn more about FireScope and its advanced ITSM solutions, visit www.firescope.com or call 877-780-3473. SOURCE FireScope, Inc. Read more: FireScope Named ‘Strong Value’ and ‘Vendor to Watch’ in EMA Radar Report

Proxima are the UK sales and implementation partner of FireScope.

FireScope is Fastest Growing ITSM Software Company –Explosive 300% License GAAP Revenue Growth in Latest Fiscal Year –Key Sales Executive Joins to Support Rapid Growth

 

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., July 14, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — FireScope, Inc., (http://www.firescope.com), the leading innovator of IT Service Management solutions, today announced that Gary Staley has joined FireScope to lead its sales organization and to expand on the organization’s 300% growth in license revenue for its latest fiscal year. This move is a critical element to FireScope’s expanded investment strategy as it builds out additional regions throughout the U.S. and world.

Gary comes with a wealth of experience within the software industry, having spent much of his career at EMC Ionix and System Management ARTS (SMARTS) where he was instrumental in acquiring numerous large corporate accounts and growing sales revenue to record levels prior to its acquisition by EMC.

“I am excited to start a new challenge with FireScope,” said Gary Staley. “And I look forward to working with the team to further develop their already extensive product and service suite. I am fortunate to be joining such a successful high growth company that prides itself on great products and customer service.”

Gary is arriving at a time of explosive growth for FireScope. Over the course of its latest fiscal year FireScope achieved in excess of 300% growth in its license revenue becoming the fastest growing ITSM software company. This growth included the acquisition of several Global 2000 accounts including Travelex and SunCorp, as well as positive accolades from Forrester Research, Gartner and other analyst groups. A recent report by CIOUpdate, 14 BSM Service Providers to Watch, described FireScope as “a strong value and a great choice for price-sensitive BSM investments.”

“Gary’s wealth of experience and industry knowledge has already made him a key addition to the FireScope team,” said Steven Cotton, CEO of FireScope. “Gary’s appointment is key to our continued rapid growth and our commitment to being a leader in our industry. The increasing demand from our customers led us to look for a leader for our team who would fit in with our ethos of innovation and exceptional service. We are very fortunate to find someone of Gary’s caliber to fulfill this role. I’m confident Gary will play a key role in providing and implementing high quality solutions for our clients.”

About FireScope

FireScope is a leading developer of groundbreaking IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions that are revolutionizing how businesses conduct IT operations. In addition to its Dash network and application monitoring solution, FireScope’s suite of products includes three primary enterprise offerings: Business Service Management (BSM) — your dashboard for your enterprise IT strategy; Configuration Management Database (CMDB) — your playbook for IT Operations; Compliance — your compass for managing IT compliance. FireScope Inc., headquartered in Huntington Beach, California has offices in Sydney, New York, Dallas and London. To learn more about FireScope and its advanced ITSM solutions, visit www.firescope.com or call 877-780-3473.

SOURCE FireScope

Copyright (C) 2010 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Webinar - 7th July 08:30 or 8th July 16:30

Virtualised networks and infrastructures offer numerous benefits to any organisation, but one of the biggest challenges is obtaining accurate, real-time reporting and management from a single, integrated solution. Clearly being able to understand which applications and services are dependent on which Virtual Machines (VMs) and, in turn, which host, is critical to any organisation. When evaluating how you are managing your virtualised assets, consider the following questions:

• Can you relate virtual assets to your IT and Business Services, using real-time monitoring?
• Are you able to immediately identify where a particular application is operating?
• Does your Management Solution automatically detect and report infrastructure changes?
• Are you able to get a graphical real-time representation of your Virtualised environment?
• Does your Management Solution go beyond SNMP, ie integration with VMWare API?

Fortunately, effective monitoring and management of your virtualised infrastructure from a single integrated solution is possible, and doesn’t have to cost you a fortune and months of effort.

So, where do you begin?
FireScope is delighted to invite you to a FREE Webex Workshop Presentation outlining the key challenges and issues associated with monitoring and management in virtualised infrastructures and, how delivering the right solution can make all the difference.

Topics include:
• The Opportunity – Going Virtual, Virtualisation – What does it mean
• The Challenge – Monitoring and Management of Virtualised environments
• The Issues – What’s different in managing Virtualised environments
• The Solution – How FireScope can help you achieve your Monitoring and Management goals