With the father and son of fault-tolerant systems, Tandem Computers Inc and Stratus Computer Inc now eagerly embracing Unix, Marlborough, Massachusetts-based Sequoia Systems Inc has its work cut out to stay ahead of the field, but, joining the rush to fit out Unix systems with all the aids and facilities that mainframe users take for granted, it reckons that it is one up with software that continuously monitors all the functions of a computer system and immediately notifies operators of problems in operations or applications – even if it did have to go out-of-house to get it. It believes that the new LightsOut software is the first unattended event monitoring program from a supplier of Unix-based fault-tolerant computers. It is designed to enable system administrators to identify and fix problems before they come to most users’ attention. It monitors all local and remote elements in a computer system, including attached devices such as printers, terminals, administrator consoles and communications links in addition to host-system functions. LightsOut was developed by ClearSpring Technologies Inc of Burlington, Massachusetts. It is a Motif-based application with an object-oriented design enabling it to operate with a wide range of open system and end-user applications, and can also monitor a network of heterogeneous systems to improve the performance of complex or distributed systems. Performance information can be viewed in real time or collected and archived at a single location to be used later for systems and capacity planning. It is based on object-oriented technology incorporating Event-Driven Systems Management for unattended operations – and the software is generally available to Unix systems vendors. For Sequoia users, LightsOut it is available from either Sequoia or ClearSpring at prices from $12,000.
