News

BMC Patrol Becomes First Application Certified for Windows

• By Scott Bekker
• 02/10/2000

BMC Software Inc. (www.bmc.com) today announced that its BMC Patrol service-level management software was the first product to pass muster for Windows 2000 Server certification.

The product was not yet listed in Microsoft’s Windows 2000 database as certified this afternoon. It also did not appear on the Veritest (www.veritest.com) Web site as a certified application. Microsoft outsources its Windows 2000 Certification testing to Veritest.

But Deborah Willingham, vice president, Windows Marketing, Microsoft Corp., provided a statement for BMC’s news release. “We are pleased to see that BMC Software is one of the leaders in advancing the value of the Windows 2000 Server family,” Willingham was quoted as saying.

While Veritest has been testing client products for Windows 2000 Professional certification for several months, the company only opened its lab to server-side products on Jan. 31. Fourteen client products have earned Certified for Windows 2000 Professional logos since October.

Microsoft will launch three of the four members of the Windows 2000 family of operating systems next Thursday in San Francisco: Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows 2000 Advanced Server. Microsoft says it will deliver a new SKU, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, in June.

Microsoft classified applications for Windows 2000 in several layers. Applications that are certified must pass stringent requirements that test that the application takes advantage of manageability improvements in Windows 2000, and that the application behaves itself during installation and operation.

Another class of applications, Windows 2000 Ready, are applications that have been tested by ISVs on Windows 2000. The designation means the vendor will support customers who run the application on Windows 2000. That level of application testing more closely resembles Microsoft’s previous logo program under Windows NT 4.0.

To achieve Certified for Windows 2000 Server status, applications must provide robust, self-repairing installation that helps minimize conflicts among shared components (i.e. DLL conflicts); facilitate easier deployment and management; simplify administration, making it easier for users to find resources through an enterprise network; centralize and unify the process of configuring or monitoring computers and applications; and simplify the administration of drivers and applications to deliver more administrative control, according to Microsoft’s Web site.

The version of BMC Patrol for Windows 2000 provides monitoring of the Active Directory, the Distributed file system, dynamic DNS, availability, and Windows Management Instrumentation. BMC will make the software generally available in April. – Scott Bekker