Software helps IT team manage MS Exchange Server environment.
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Press Release Summary:
Tidal(TM) Intelligent Automation(TM) for MS Exchange Server allows IT team to automate Exchange Server management processes, ensuring that administrative processes are executed and corporate policies are followed. It helps avoid operational/policy errors, and offers workflow process to migrate user from MS Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007. Product enables delegation of tasks done by administrators to business functions/departments, and supports Systems Center Operations Manager 2007.
Original Press Release:
Tidal Software Announces New Automation Product for Microsoft Exchange Server at Microsoft Management Summit 2008
Automated Operational Best Practices for Microsoft Exchange Server, Active Directory, and Windows Server with support for SCOM 2007 Showcased in Booth 630
MICROSOFT MANAGEMENT SUMMIT, Las Vegas, Nevada - April 29, 2008 - Tidal Software, a leading provider of application scheduling and performance management software, today announced Tidal(TM) Intelligent Automation(TM) for Microsoft Exchange Server at the Microsoft Management Summit. The product enables IT to comprehensively automate Exchange Server management processes, ensuring that administrative processes are executed consistently, administrative access is managed securely, and corporate policies are adhered to consistently. These automated processes also assist in executing the diagnostic steps needed to quickly identify the source and nature of any technical problems impacting Exchange Server performance, localizing problems within the supporting software, hardware, or third party products supporting an Exchange Server environment. Intelligent Automation for Microsoft Exchange Server supports SCOM 2007, providing an easy way to automate the response to problems identified by the SCOM 2007 Management Pack for Exchange Management Server.
Tidal Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server simplifies many of the common administration processes needed to manage an Exchange Server environment. While an IT team could automate these functions through scripting, the resulting automated processes would not offer any policy-based controls, auditing, or management of administrative privileges. Tidal Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server also helps to identify problems with email and related tools that can often be mis-attributed to Exchange Server, problems that in fact more often originate in the client, network, operating environment, third party tools, or in one of the many other components in a complete Exchange Server environment. Tidal provides a rapid way for help desk and administrators to automate administration processes through a graphical interface, and quickly pinpoint problem sources.
"Increasingly, messaging infrastructure is becoming a central platform for business. Business process continuity, corporate compliance, and information security are all dependent on a properly functioning messaging platform," said David Williams, Research VP at Gartner. "Solutions that assist in automating the administrative and operational processes surrounding these platforms will play a vital role in ensuring not just the availability and service level management of the messaging platform, but its ability to fulfill these business critical functions."
Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server allows Exchange Server administration teams to:
o Avoid operational and policy errors and prove adherence for compliance: allows IT to reduce risks presented to the enterprise when policies are not tightly aligned with processes.
o Build custom automation for administration without scripting: saves time, but also allows processes to be changed quickly, and be understood easily across the team in the future.
o Coordinate with other groups supporting the Exchange Server environment: Windows, Active Directory, DNS, and IIS administration play a crucial role and Intelligent Automation increases cross organization efficiency, ensuring availability and service level delivery.
o Quickly get needed information to troubleshoot issues: improves resolution time, increasing both IT and business productivity.
The solution is built on a rich application automation and performance management foundation and includes a combination of visual and analytic capabilities that combine to simplify the automation of processes that incorporate and support business rules.
Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server Product Details:
Migration to Exchange Server 2007 -- Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server provides a sophisticated workflow process to migrate users from Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to Exchange Server 2007. It runs automatically, allowing migration activity to run automatically on off hours such as evenings and weekends while email usage is minimal and can be stopped and started until all mailboxes are migrated. The migration process can automatically decommission the old Exchange Server when complete. The process is completely visible and can be easily tailored to meet user time-frames and migration policy requirements.
Standardized management processes for Exchange Server 2007 -- Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server reduces the learning curve for administrators as they move to Exchange Server 2007 by automating a range of standard management processes. It offers either full automation where no administrator intervention is required, or guided operations in which the process proposes options to the administrator and obtains concurrence before proceeding. Many processes in IT require management approvals before changes are implemented, and Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server can require and manage approvals at any step in a process. To support regulatory compliance, it logs all requests for approvals and the approvals themselves.
Secure Self-service Administration for Exchange Server -- Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server can allow delegation of tasks normally done by administrators to business functions and departments. For example, the Exchange Server administrator can delegate the task of setting up the combination of an email and a network share or creating a new email distribution list to Human Resources. The product provides a complete audit trail and automation ensures that the process is consistently executed by HR personnel. Now HR can process new hires, terminations, and other events, automatically creating, removing, and/or archiving all relevant mailboxes and accounts. The result is both reduced workload on Exchange Server administrators, reliable execution of multi-part processes, complete auditability, and faster service to the business.
Fully auditable for regulatory compliance -- By managing policy separately from process, Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server provides for complete auditability, covering both its automated processes and any administrative actions taken manually. Process defines the steps to accomplish a task, policy defines who is authorized to accomplish the task and the capabilities they are allowed. Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server can identify when a task is done outside of an approved process and can automatically bring that the task into compliance by obtaining required approvals. Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server provides administrative staff ready access to status information such as what a process accomplished and if any processes have changed, what changed and who changed them. Full security and delegation provides control over who can run what processes, who can design processes and policies, and who can have access to audit and reporting data.
Systems Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007 Support -- Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server integrates with the SCOM 2007 Exchange Management Pack for automated resolution of problems. For example, if an Exchange server exceeds a resource limit, the Exchange Management Pack issues an alert to SCOM 2007 console that Exchange Server has experienced a problem and will shutdown. Intelligent Automation processes the alert, notifies the administrator of options on how to proactively correct the problem, processes the selected corrective action, verifies that the solution corrected the problem, and closes the alert in the SCOM 2007 console when the process is completed.
Completely customizable -- A powerful visual process editor lets administrators automate their own best practices. Users define a graphical view of their process, which documents the process, generates the process execution, provides live status monitoring, and maintains a record of the process for audit and change management. Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server includes many activity modules that provide a foundation for building robust automation, enabling customization of the included standard ready-to-run processes or creation of processes for a specific environment or operational need.
Complete access to the Microsoft environment - Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server can access the complete infrastructure landscape needed to operate Exchange Server. For incorporation into the automated processes Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server can access to detailed configuration and performance information from Active Directory, Analysis Wizards (ExBPA, Baseline Security Analyzer, and more), DNS, Event logs, Indexing Service, Internet Information Service, Message Queing, Quality of Service Admission Control, Remote Access Service, SharePoint, SQL Server, Terminal Services, and Windows System Resources Manager. This system information includes the complete range of information necessary to ensure that your automated administrative processes run consistently and accurately.
"Tidal has developed an offering that effectively helps customers consistently apply their company's processes and policies, as well as reduce the impact of environmental and peripheral factors on Exchange Server," said Ted Trimble, Senior Vice President of Engineering for Tidal. "With Tidal, Microsoft's solutions can more easily maintain service levels for vital applications, which enable IT to increase focus on aligning the applications with the business' dynamic needs."
Tidal Intelligent Automation for Exchange Server is in General Availability today.
About Tidal Software
Tidal Software is a leading provider of application scheduling and performance management software that radically simplifies IT operations by automating and integrating performance and process management. Tidal's solution puts IT operations management into the business process using new levels of automation, visibility, and control over systems. Tidal makes applications such as SAP®, PeopleSoft®, and Oracle E-business Suite(TM) more efficient, reliable, and secure to return greater business value. Tidal also gives IT deep visibility into and precise control over new SOA-based composite solutions consisting of packaged applications and custom components in Microsoft .NET and Java. General Mills, HP, ING Direct, Microsoft, and T-Mobile are among the Tidal customers who use Tidal to reduce operational costs by running IT at higher efficiency rates and containing overall data center footprints. Privately held, Tidal is venture-backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Novus Ventures, Panorama Capital, and VantagePoint Venture Partners.
For more information, contact Tidal Software at (650) 475-4600 or visit www.tidalsoftware.com.
For more information contact:
Will Matlack
650.475.4645
pr@tidalsoftware.com
Web site: www.tidalsoftware.com
