Fighting back against software-agent overload

Networking Technology Update This newsletter is sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent Get more out of your IT dollar Business Services Management lets you get more out of your IT investments by aligning business goals and your core infrastructure. Network World Editor-in-Chief John Dix and IDC Research Manager Stephen Elliot examine BSM's benefits and how enterprises are starting to take advantage of this strategy. Attend now! Networking Technology Update, 08/08/07 Fighting back against software-agent overload By Denise Dubie Software agents — long seen as a necessary evil by those securing and managing servers, desktops and other endpoint devices — have proliferated to the point of polluting enterprise environments. Get more out of your IT dollar Business Services Management lets you get more out of your IT investments by aligning business goals and your core infrastructure. Network World Editor-in-Chief John Dix and IDC Research Manager Stephen Elliot examine BSM's benefits and how enterprises are starting to take advantage of this strategy. Attend now! IT managers are fed up with their endpoint devices becoming the dumping ground for bits of vendor code that can slow performance, conflict with services running on the machines and cause huge management headaches when upgrades are needed. Vendors have imposed their agents on customer machines long enough, IT managers say, and the time has come to change how servers and endpoints are secured and managed. “There are risks in putting too many agents on any one device, so I’ve had to set hard limits on how many agents we send out to our endpoints,” says William Bell, director of information security at CWIE, an Internet-based Web-hosting company in Tempe, Ariz. “Some people will tell you agents are botnets waiting to happen, but if you have ever tried to patch thousands of machines without agents, you know agents have their place. It’s a judgment call.” Bell is not alone in his efforts to balance the amount of software installed on clients and servers for the sake of securing and managing the machines. For more on this story, please click here. Editor's Note: We regret to let you know that we will no longer be publishing the Networking Technology Update newsletter. To keep you abreast of network technology issues, starting the week of Aug. 13, you will begin receiving the Network/Systems Management newsletter, which mails every Monday and Wednesday. We thank you for supporting Network World newsletters.

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Contact the author: Network World Senior Editor Denise Dubie can be reached at ddubie@nww.com This newsletter is sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent Get more out of your IT dollar Business Services Management lets you get more out of your IT investments by aligning business goals and your core infrastructure. Network World Editor-in-Chief John Dix and IDC Research Manager Stephen Elliot examine BSM's benefits and how enterprises are starting to take advantage of this strategy. Attend now! BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007