Symantec, CyberMedia unwrap utility offerings

Symantec Corp. and CyberMedia Inc. are targeting the federal market with tools designed to help organizations manage their PC networks.

Symantec Cupertino Calif. today announced the availability of Norton Administrator Suite - Premier Edition a product that aims to corral large heterogeneous PC networks. And CyberMedia Santa Monica Calif. earlier this month started shipping First Aid 95 Deluxe Network Edition which notifies network administrators of Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 applications problems occurring on PCs.

Both products are geared toward network administrators and both are or will be available on federal contract vehicles. Symantec said Norton Administrator Suite - Premier Edition will be offered on the General Services Administration schedule. Symantec's schedule resellers are ASAP Software Express Government Technology Services Inc. Softmart and Stream. CyberMedia's First Aid 95 Deluxe Network Edition is available governmentwide through the National Technical Information Service's FedWorld. The FedWorld contract was arranged through Sales Resources Consultants an Annandale Va. firm that represents CyberMedia in the federal market.

Executives at both companies said they see potential in the federal market. Barry Nelson vice president of sales and marketing at Sales Resources Consultants said agencies such as the Defense Logistics Agency are evaluating CyberMedia's tools.

Net Managers

Symantec's Norton Administrator Suite - Premier Edition provides features such as real-time server monitoring hardware and software inventory tracking software license metering software distribution desktop virus protection desktop configuration management and remote network management.

The product supports network operating systems such as Microsoft's NT Server Novell Inc.'s NetWare and Banyan Systems Inc.'s VINES. At the client level the product supports Windows 3.1 Windows 95 Windows NT Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh and IBM Corp.'s OS/2.

"We're focusing our efforts on helping customers manage [client/server] components " said Ted E. Schlein vice president of networking and client/server technology at Symantec. According to Symantec the target customer is an administrator running a network with more than 1 000 nodes. The company earlier this year began shipping Norton Administrator Suite - Essential Edition for smaller local-area networks. The product's price ranges from $57 per network node for 1 000 licenses to $42 per node for 5 000 licenses the pricing assumes the customer buys all seven of the product's modules.

CyberMedia's First Aid 95 Deluxe Network Edition is designed to "make IS people more efficient " said Kraig Lane the product manager at CyberMedia. The product sends an electronic-mail message to the network administrator whenever it detects a problem on a given PC. The notification includes crashes caused by general protection faults.

The network administrator portion of First Aid 95 Deluxe Network Edition runs on PCs under Windows 3.1 or Windows 95.

The product also includes a portion that resides on a user's PC. That portion allows users to solve some of their own Windows problems through CyberMedia's AutoFix technology. Auto-Fix coupled with the product's built-in knowledge base of PC problems can intercept crashes and fix software problems and configuration conflicts automatically. The user portion also runs under Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.

Sales Resources Consultants' Nelson said the best volume discount offered through FedWorld is $15.64 per user. Products purchased in smaller quantities sell for about $30 per user he said.