System Management Tools Northampton MA

COMPUTER SCIENTISTS LOOK FORWARD TO A time when routine system management tasks such as adding memory or allocating disk space are automated. The need for increased automation is clear, since the rise of the Internet and computer networks has far outstripped the supply of available information technology (IT) workers.

Some call these capabilities “autonomic,” others call them “self-healing,” but most industry analysts agree that autonomic computing is a vague concept that's been tough for large computer vendors such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard to sell.

One baby step toward what will be a gradual evolution to autonomic computing is ThinkVantage, a series of system management tools IBM builds into its desktops and laptops. One of the more notable features is Rescue and Recovery with Rapid Restore, which lets a user restore a PC to a previously saved state with the touch of a button. This feature is in use at Newport Beach, Calif.–based WL Homes, which had 1,806 closings in 2003 and $744 million in revenue under the John Laing Homes brand name. WL is a fairly large builder, but Rapid Restore can be applied by small custom builders with only two or three employees.

Steven Scardina, WL's vice president of information technology, says he and his staff manage 350 users, 100 of whom are field workers in sales offices or trailers, so a tool like Rapid Restore that helps users automatically recover from common problems such as corrupted software files is most welcome.

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