Information technology (IT) departments at enterprises often are kept busy with the  time-consuming but necessary tasks associated with changing and configuring various network devices. Such maintenance might seem mundane, but it’s very necessary to ensure that systems are kept running and security isn’t compromised.

 

The time-consuming nature of change and configuration management can be a problem, since there may not be enough resources to perform the type of in-depth analysis needed to head off big headaches before they occur. This is where automation comes in.

 

Automation is the keyword for nSolutions, a company that this week at the Interop (News - Alert) show in Las Vegas is launching its flagship change and configuration product, Network Ontology and Virtualization Appliance (NOVA).

 

In a Monday announcement, the company described NOVA as scalable appliance that auto-discovers infrastructure resource configurations, builds a real-time inventory of resources, and then controls changes to ensure uptime and security.

 

Harish Rao, CEO at nSolutions, said that change and configuration management is central to all IT operations. Because it’s so time-consuming, however, automation is the only way to keep things under control. NOVA was developed to centralize that automation, rather than using a collection of what Rao described as “point solutions” —one for each individual device.

 

“Virtualization only exacerbates the manageability problem,” Rao said. “What was needed is a solution that provides a unified view of the entire IT infrastructure based on: auto discovery, a real-time repository of the infrastructure resources configurations and a decision support system for managing changes holistically.”

 

NOVA was created to fill that need.

 

“nSolutions brings a unique set of capabilities to the change and configuration management space,” said Richard Ptak, managing partner and analyst at Ptak, Noel and Associates LLC, in a statement. “NOVA by means of an easy and simple insertion of an appliance — provides immediate visibility and understanding of business services — without the long cycle of project development, while eliminating useless data models.”

 

San Jose, California-based nSolutions was spun out of Bell Laboratory Research in 2001. The company’s NOVA line of appliances provide visibility into and control over the configuration of globally distributed networks.

 

Pricing for NOVA starts at $20,000. The appliance, available in two models (M-100 for configurations with 50-100 devices, and E-100 for 2000 or more devices) can be purchased through a worldwide network of channel partners serving the financial, healthcare, manufacturing and retail sectors.