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Rollout: MValent Integrity

The Upshot


Claim
MValent Integrity manages the configuration of complex application infrastructures. Integrity aims to reduce application downtime due to misconfiguration by helping IT manage change, versioning and releases, and to automate routine tasks. A new change dashboard simplifies compliance-based audits.
Context
Unlike competing software configuration products, such as those from Perforce, Rational ClearCase or CVS, mValent provides a complete package for managing all elements of the app environment in a single solution. Application-dependency mapping tools track app dependencies and changes, but can't provision apps or roll them back to previous configurations.
Credibility
Integrity can automate routine tasks and provide a unified management framework to address application configuration changes and release management. However, users must have deep knowledge of their application infrastructure to get real value from Integrity. Also, installation, setup and configuration is best left to the vendor, given the product's complexity.

MValent Integrity

As applications get more complicated, they require the same kind of coordinated management as used with network, server and OS infrastructures. Otherwise, apps may fail due to misconfiguration, unplanned changes or miscommunication among the constituencies that touch apps: developers, the quality assurance group and production teams.

Conventional configuration-management vendors, such as Alterpoint, BladeLogic, Opsware and Voyence, focus on servers and/or network environments. They provide limited information about apps and don't track app-configuration changes. Products such as such as EMC's nLayers, Symantec's Relicore and Tideway Systems' Foundation map application dependencies and can track application configuration changes, but don't enable provisioning or the ability to roll back changes.

comprehensive application change, release and configuration management, as well as automated audit reporting, in one package.

This has led to software configuration management (SCM), brought to you by IBM, mValent, Perforce Software and the open-source tool CVS. MValent's Integrity stands apart from its competitors because it combines multiple functions, including

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