Lucid8 Information Services LLC this week rolled out GOexchange 3.1, an updated version of the company"s preventative maintenance software for the Microsoft Exchange Server. Next month, newcomer Azaleos will emerge from stealth mode with a managed appliance for Exchange environments.
Messaging system management is a very big and expensive issue for enterprises, said Sara Radicati, president and CEO of The Radicati Group Inc. Exchange is in particular, because it carries a larger market share and gets a lot of attention.
"With any messaging system the maintenance and administration of it is major issue for corporations," Radicati said. "They put a lot of money, training, and personnel into it."
Lucid8"s GOexchange 3.1 is designed to ease maintenance, boost performance, and reduce storage requirements in Exchange environments. The new version gains interface improvements, new configuration features, and centralized management.
Lucid8 originally started out in the disaster recovery space, eventually packaging its technology for restoring lost messaging data and preventing system instability, according to Troy Werelius, president of Lucid8.
Exchange"s multiple databases lead to complex management issues, such as data loss and degradation in performance, Werelius said.
"Enterprise can have up to 20 different databases for Exchange," Werelius said. "As you move things around, you leave holes in the database [and] that problem exacerbates over time."
To avoid unplanned downtime and improve stability, GOexchange analyzes, rebuilds, and optimizes each database, Werelius added.
Version 3.1 of GOexchange is built on Microsoft Corp."s Management Console, delivering improvements in flexibility and integration of management functions. In addition, new, advanced configuration tools let administrators select maintenance by server, storage group, or individual store. Other enhancements include broad scheduling capabilities, the ability to centrally manage and configure Exchange servers located throughout an enterprise, and integration with backup offerings from CommVault Systems Inc., Computer Associates International Inc., Microsoft NTBackup 5, UltraBac, and Veritas Software Corp.
Azaleos, meanwhile, will debut its company and first offering next month. The company plans to introduce a managed appliance for Exchange that aims to ensure availability and fault tolerance, according to company officials.
The managed appliance provides all Exchange-related maintenance and management services.
Through a Web-based interface, the managed appliance delivers 24-hour, seven-days-a-week performance monitoring, maintenance, and management of the Exchange messaging environment.