Start-up Networx Inc, a Boeing Co spin-off, expects to launch the industry’s first second-generation network management application this week at the InterOp communications and interoperability show in San Francisco. Called Paradigm, the product is an off-the-shelf application that integrates trouble ticketing with inventory, providing the user with automatic analysis, tracking and notification. It is based on a cross-referencing data model. IBM Corp has been working with Networx on the product’s core technology. Extensions will integrate it with IBM’s NetView/6000. Paradigm is also integrated with Hewlett-Packard Co’s OpenView and SunConnect’s SunNet Manager, but the Open Software Foundation’s much-ballyhooed Distributed Management Environment technology is missing from Networx’s system list because it is not available as a product yet, and no other systems are considered significant. Networx was founded at the end of last year by emigrees from the Boeing Network Management Systems & Services group and Paradigm is based on software originally developed by Boeing for internal network management and as a strategic technology for the Computer Service Division’s commercial network business. Bellevue, Washington-based Networx bought the software and is licensing it back to Boeing. According to Networx president Christopher Slatt, the Boeing software was a non-commercial product written in C and a proprietary language. Networx rewrote it completely in C++. By design and architecture, Paradigm is said to be ready for the leap into object orientation. The product’s heritage, Slatt said, gives it a leg-up over competitors. Its original design was user-driven and tested at government and commercial sites. Facilities include filtering network events, automatic notification, escalating unresolved problems, creating action plans, tracking vendor performance and multi-level security. Networx is venture-backed with funding from Vanguard Venture Partners and Paragon Venture Partners, with a business plan that says it could be a $35m to $50m a year company. Paradigm is its first product, with an asset management package likely to follow. As it is, ready-to-use third-party network management programs are few and far between, forcing users to roll their own, a pricey exercise that costs anywhere from $100,000 to $250,000 an application. Paradigm, including one network management system interface and one client, is priced at $10,000. Each additional network manager client is $950. End-user client tools are included and the product will be available in December this year. The company expects to sell via OEM customers (one of which will obviously be IBM), resellers and integrators, as well as direct.
