News Release

Vintela Announces the Release of Vintela Management Extensions (VMX)

VMX extends Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 capabilities to seamlessly manage Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X environments

LINDON, Utah – August 9, 2004 – Vintela, a leading provider of innovative platform integration solutions for Unix and Windows, today announced the release of Vintela Management Extensions (VMX) 1.0. VMX provides an extensible framework for management and monitoring of non-Windows clients natively from within Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003.

VMX 1.0 is a Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 administration console snap-in and client that solves multi-platform administration and management problems by seamlessly integrating with SMS 2003 to natively extend management and administration capabilities to non-Windows platforms. VMX enables IT administrators to use existing SMS Management Points and Distribution Points to manage Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X systems from within the existing SMS console and infrastructure.

“VMX, together with SMS 2003, gives organizations the ability to manage all systems in mixed platform environments more cost-effectively using SMS—their management tool of choice,” said Dave Wilson, president of Vintela. “Enterprise organizations with heterogeneous environments can now reduce the costs of managing both their Windows and non-Windows systems within SMS 2003.”

“Microsoft is pleased to team with a company like Vintela as part of the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) to meet customers’ diverse needs for managing systems across both Windows and non-Windows environments,” said David Hamilton, director of the Enterprise Management Division at Microsoft Corp. “Customers have told us how much they like the Systems Management Server 2003 console; now with VMX, enterprise customers with Unix, Linux, and Mac computers can use that same familiar interface as a single point of management to consolidate and standardize change and configuration management tasks for non-Windows systems.”

VMX uses a WBEM/CIM-based architecture. This standard allows the VMX client to seamlessly perform like an SMS Advanced Client extended to non-Windows resources. VMX uses the same data stores, classes, objects, and attributes that SMS 2003 uses, which results in a seamless integration of non-Windows systems within the SMS administration console. Consequently, VMX enables organizations to consolidate and standardize all systems management within SMS 2003.

Enterprise organizations using SMS 2003 can easily implement VMX within their existing environment. VMX will extend non-Windows system management capabilities to SMS 2003 for:

system discovery
software distribution
hardware and software inventory
collections and queries
reports

It also enables administrators to launch Unix and Linux remote tools from the SMS Administration Console.

For Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers, first-level product support for VMX is provided directly by Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS). This single point of contact means that Microsoft EA customers using SMS 2003 will receive product support for VMX directly from Microsoft.

About Vintela
Vintela provides a family of innovative, extensible platform integration solutions built around the Vintela Integration Architecture (VIA) that enable non-Windows environments to integrate with Microsoft-centric environments. These key infrastructure technologies enhance the security and manageability of applications and systems for companies with heterogeneous operating environments. VIA products include VAS for identity and access management using Microsoft’s Active Directory, and VMX for change and configuration management for Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X using Microsoft SMS 2003. For more information on Vintela products and services, visit http://www.vintela.com.

© 2004 Vintela, Inc. All rights reserved. Vintela is a trademark of Vintela, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners in the United States and/or other countries.

Press Only Contact:
Vintela
Todd Peterson
Marketing Communications Manager
Phone: +1-801-655-2509
E-mail: [email protected]