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Network Device Configuration Management Products: Page 3 of 27

Meanwhile, CatTools is aimed at the network engineer and small and midsize businesses. Inexpensive and easy to use, it has solid configuration management. We didn't find policy management, compliance reporting or workflow functions, and it doesn't support database repositories, but it does have a decent list of supported devices (not all Cisco!) and solid diagnostic and configuration-management tools.

DeviceAuthority trailed a point behind the ease-of-use leaders mainly because we had to deal with two interfaces: a Java Update interface and a separate HTML Audit interface, running on Win32 and IE 6, respectively. The HTML interface was cleaner and easier to use, but you must create update jobs and perform certain administration and configuration-management chores in the Java app. The Java app will run the HTML interface within a window, and the HTML interface uses the same authentication as the Java app, but session information is maintained separately. So we had to log back on to both interfaces after time-outs--an annoying process made more tedious when the HTML interface would spawn a new window, say, for a report, to which we then had to authenticate.

Although subpar ease-of-use might not be a deal-breaker in shops with experienced network administrators, more-intuitive GUIs and systems administration will generally translate into lower care and feeding costs. Speaking of price, check out our pricing chart on page 75 for a detailed look at what these products will set you back.

Compliance is a selling point for almost everything IT is purchasing lately except maybe new mousepads, and Opsware's NA System is no exception. Its Compliance Center can help crack the reporting nut by orienting all of its (considerable) reporting in relation to Sarbanes-Oxley, COBIT, COSO, ITIL, GLBA or HIPAA. Summary and more-detailed links gave us explanations of what each standard requires and how they are interrelated. We were impressed, but then, we haven't had a lot of experience with some of these reporting types. So we asked some reference customers that are knee-deep in compliance reporting and found that they weren't as excited as we were, mainly because they were, well, knee-deep in compliance audits and had learned what it takes to placate auditors. They did, however, appreciate the cross-referencing of reports to various areas outlined by these standards.

The three participating vendors are a good representation of the state of this technology. Kiwi's CatTools is easy to use, straightforward and a great value. It's not going to manage policies or report on SOX compliance, but it will keep your configurations safe and let you manage the network without any heavy lifting. AlterPoint's DeviceAuthority includes policy management, a single-sign-on proxy and serious database support, making it a top contender.