SolarWinds Tackles IP Address ManagementSolarWinds Tackles IP Address Management

As businesses become more dispersed, managing them becomes more complicated. One challenge for small and medium businesses is tracking network addresses, something that has become more complex as employees work with a wider range of devices. One vendor has tried to tackle the problems with two address management products.SolarWinds is one of a growing number of vendors trying to break the vice that the big four (CA, HP, IBM, and BMC Software) have had on the network and systems management space. SolarWinds has used an open source approach and low priced solutions to try and gain a market foothold: more than 80.000 businesses rely on the companys tools to manage their businesses.

To lure more customers, the company added two IP address tracking products, which could replace spreadsheets or other such tools sometimes in small and medium businesses. The free SolarWinds IP Address Tracker, which is designed for small companies, scans for IP devices and determines which addresses are in use, which are not, and the last time an address was utilized. The Orion IP Address Manager (IPAM) identifies and eliminates IP address conflicts, which can improve uptime. The product also creates reports about IP address space utilization. IPAM pricing starts at $1,995 and runs to about $16,000, depending on the number of devices on the network.

Currently, IP address management is often bundled in devices, such as DNS and DHCP appliances. SolarWinds may have to educate the market about the benefits of its approach. In addition, customers may desire that IP address management products link to non SolarWinds devices, something currently lacking in the two new products. But for the corporation that has grown tired to using spreadsheets to track network address, SolarWinds has developed an alternative.