News

NetIQ’s AppManager Receives Datacenter Server Certification

• By Scott Bekker
• 01/03/2001

Although Microsoft’s SQL Server 2000 was the first application certified for Datacenter Server, NetIQ is the first vendor other than Microsoft to receive certification. AppManager Suite is a set of tools for monitoring application performance on Windows NT and 2000 networks.

“We had to go through a pretty rigorous audit from Veritest for our support services,” says Kevin Connor, product manager at NetIQ. The certification guidelines require vendors to have dedicated support staff available around the clock.

Connor says that because NetIQ is a young, fast growing company, NetIQ had to adjust some practices in order to meet the requirements for Datacenter certification. NetIQ developed a system where support staffs in different time zones handle calls – for example a U.S. customer calling at midnight, would reach support representatives in Singapore. This system allowed NetIQ to meet the specification without hiring new support staff.

NetIQ also made a few other changes to its support practices to meet the guidelines, but Connor feels that the audit was a positive experience. “It helped up improve our processes,” he says.

“The actual certification of the application was the easy part,” Connor says. Although Datacenter certification requires applications to take advantage of some Datacenter Server features, such as clustering and multi-processing, Connor says much of the work was done preparing for Advanced Server certification.

The 48-hour stress test also created some anxiety. “Making sure our bits worked right in a rigorous environment, that was our biggest technical challenge,” Connor says.

NetIQ encountered another software issue peculiar to Datacenter Server. “In a Datacenter environment, users do not want to upgrade applications,” Connor says. If an application is stable, Connor says that users will want to make incremental upgrades, rather than install entirely new applications. NetIQ had to make some adjustments for this scenario in AppManager.

Connor says that all NetIQ customers will benefit from the Datacenter certification process, not just Datacenter customers.  “You may not notice it, but you’re getting a higher level of support from NetIQ,” he says. – Christopher McConnell