Aegis automates many DBA tasks

Do you have a need to cut IT Management Costs? Most
organizations will welcome this idea and will listen intently. Recently,
Gartner reported that process automation has become a key focus for
organizations looking to improve and measure IT operations. Let me introduce to
you NETIQ’s Aegis, a vendor-neutral platform whose sole purpose is to model,
automate, measure, and improve IT operations.

According to NETIQ, Aegis will integrate with NetIQ systems
and security management products as well as BMC Remedy, EMC Smarts and other
leading third-party products to automate IT processes. This is quickly becoming
a crowded space, and Gartner estimates that by the end of 2007, 35% of IT
managers will start to invest in such automation technologies. That number is
expected to grow as existing implementations deliver incremental successes.

Travis Greene, Chief Service Management Strategist at NetIQ,
says, “No other IT Process Automation product has an embedded correlation
engine like Aegis. This enables Aegis to more intelligently trigger
process execution, based on analysis of events from multiple, dissimilar
tools"

He goes on to say, "Anyone in IT who has tried to
implement process understands that a resistance to change can quickly arise if
process is perceived as a bureaucratic bottleneck to getting things done. Aegis
helps IT organizations avoid that by automating process and shifting
the bias from ‘doing’ to ‘approving’ through tool integration."

Aegis was developed internally with
a process-centric perspective; Aegis delivers Run
Book Automation
(RBA) with intelligent automation to vastly reduce the time spent
by IT operations’ staff on manual repetitive tasks. It is also a broad
scope IT automation platform delivering an intelligent, incremental path for
the adoption of ITIL
best practices.

Greene states, “Aegis is like a universal remote control for
your IT management tools. Similar to what you might use at home to
automate the running of your home theater components, Aegis understands
what each tool in your environment is capable of and can automatically control
them in the right order, whenever a triggering event is
received."

Aegis features the following:

  • Enterprise Service Bus: Allows for vendor-agnostic integration of
    existing enterprise, security and application management tools
  • Process Automation Engine: Executes
    pre-defined workflows in response to process triggers to command existing
    permissioned tools to take action
  • Process Visualization: Enables
    viewing of process execution through an interactive Web console to better
    manage IT service delivery and facilitates collaboration between process owners
  • Process Improvement Metrics and
    Reporting: Utilizes metrics generated by an analysis engine to calculate
    process efficiency and demonstrate improvement
  • Workflow Modeling: Documents tribal
    knowledge through a drag-and-drop designer or pre-built templates to create
    processes based upon management best practices
  • Correlation Engine: Gathers events and
    data from multiple tool sources and correlates them to produce more intelligent
    process triggers    
  • “With our Aegis product, NetIQ is
    delivering a more practical approach to process automation that has not been
    available to date,” said Chris Pick, vice president, Products and Marketing,
    NetIQ. “By providing more intelligent automation and a platform to maximize
    under-utilized management tools, Aegis helps organizations better control the
    cost of IT operations. This is critical as customers and prospects strive to
    eliminate highly repetitive and mundane tasks and more efficiently allocate
    their time to meeting business requirements for growth.”

As a database administrator (DBA),
you might be wondering how this software can make your life easier. Aegis can
do specific tasks that ease your chaotic life on a daily basis. Most DBA’s
today wear many hats and any relief from arduous tasks would be welcomed. To
make a database administrator’s life easier, Aegis can perform the following:

  • Aegis can trigger the method of shrinking database files to
    alleviate space issues that may arise during a business day should disk space
    be a concern.
  • Aegis can verify the cause of SQL deadlocks should the
    performance threshold be crossed.
  • Aegis can also kick off the T-SQL command to create a user and/or
    grant a user access to requested databases based on a help desk ticket and the
    proper approval chain.
  • If a database dump fails because of low disk space, Aegis
    workflow kicks off to present the database administrator with the list of large
    files. The administrator can then choose which files to delete and send a
    message to Aegis to re-submit the backup task.

These are just examples of how Aegis can automate many of
the tasks database administrators would under normal circumstances have to do
manually. Aegis can provide alerts to DBA’s on multiple issues and enable them
to react by responding to Aegis’ message. Aegis can then set processes in
motion to address those items automatically.

About NetIQ

“NetIQ, an Attachmate
business, is a leading provider of comprehensive systems and security
management solutions that help enterprises maximize IT service delivery and
efficiency. With more than 12,000 customers worldwide, NetIQ solutions yield
measurable business value and results that dynamic organizations demand.
NetIQ’s best-of-breed solutions help IT organizations deliver critical business
services, mitigate operational risk, and document policy compliance. The
company’s portfolio of award-winning management solutions includes IT Process
Automation, Systems Management, Security Management, Configuration Control and
Enterprise Administration. For more information, please visit www.netiq.com.”

NetIQ Aegis is due out in late November 2007. Pricing is
based upon managed object, management server and connectors to third party
products. For more information, please visit http://www.netiq.com/go/aegis-pr or
call NetIQ at (888) 323-6768.

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See All Articles by Columnist
Steven S. Warren

Steven Warren
Steven Warren
Steven S. Warren is a popular author residing in Winter Haven, Florida with his wife Danna and 2 children: Catie-Charlotte and Dain. As a columnist on such well-known IT web sites as Techrepublic.com, CNET, and ZDNET, Steven has published numerous articles. Additionally, Steven holds the following certifications: MCDBA, MCSE, MCSA, CCA, CIW-SA, CIW-MA, Network+, and I-Net+. As a Senior Technical Consultant for The Ultimate Software Group, Steven has become an expert at administering Microsoft networks including Microsoft SQL Server. He is also a computer hardware and troubleshooting expert, and is constantly seeking out new technologies and certifications. Additionally, Microsoft recently awarded him the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for his outstanding achievements. Steven resides in Winter Haven, Fl.

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