Eliminating Roadblocks To Information AccessEliminating Roadblocks To Information Access

IT execs will never stop all Internet problems, but with new software from a handful of vendors, they can do a better job of limiting the things that prevent information access.

One of those vendors, Tonic Software Inc., is unloading a container full of new features in a product update designed to shorten access disruptions. Tonic version 3 includes probable-cause isolation, testing of specific network components, and bidirectional integration with two of the leading enterprise-management software products.

Probable-cause isolation is designed to let administrators determine real barriers to information, as opposed to incidents such as performance slowdowns and full disk drives. They'll be able to examine databases and Enterprise JavaBeans to more accurately identify problems. Finally, Tonic version 3 will exchange information with BMC Software Inc.'s Patrol and Tivoli's Enterprise Console.

Tonic and competitors such as Resonate Inc. and Mercury Interactive Corp. are evolving from writing simple monitoring apps to offering software products that can take corrective actions.

Customers themselves can unknowingly create problems, such as buggy software or faulty servers, in the infrastructure. "The best they can do is speed the time to fix the problems," says industry analyst Jean-Pierre Garbani at Giga Information Group. "That alone can increase the availability of the app."