Gold Wire Deal Signals Market Shakedown

In recent months, configuration-management tool vendors have been growing and attacking the enterprise market like mold on a bathtub. Intelliden, AlterPoint, Rendition, Tripwire, Voyence and even network tool vendor SolarWinds are offering configuration-management gear for switches, routers, firewalls, load balancers and, in some cases, Unix servers. Gold Wire, which targeted ISPs, was forced to close its doors following the dot-com bust but had made some strides reorienting its products for the enterprise.

Gold Wire didn't get into financial trouble because its technology was substandard. In fact, its products were always among the top finishers in our lab tests, but it competed in a tough and crowded market. Intelliden, which is expanding its server-provider configuration-management technology, will continue to develop the Gold Wire technology. The move is good not only for Gold Wire users, who will be supported, but also for enterprises that are looking for a more compact list of configuration-management tools to choose from.