Network Automation announced the release date for their newest version of AutoMate, the leading software for automation of front and back- office IT tasks. AutoMate 6, which is scheduled for release on March 28, 2005, has added a variety of features that further enable IT professionals to quickly automate projects, saving them time and money.
“AutoMate is the leading software for IT task automation because it offers IT professionals the ability to automate complex IT tasks without writing a single line of code,” said Dustin Snell, CEO of Network Automation. “Automate 6 has improved upon the security, manageability and functionality of previous versions, allowing users to securely automate and maintain tasks more affordably than ever before.”
According to Snell, many organizations have to comply with the security standards found in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Sarbanes-Oxley. AutoMate 6’s security improvements aid this compliance with support for native SFTP and HTTPS, allowing IT professionals to move data without compromising its contents.
AutoMate 6 has also added several new manageability and functionality improvements. For example, the new Event Database allows users to quickly locate, sort and filter task success/fail information. In addition, AutoMate 6 allows for easier automation of more applications without the need for additional 3rd party software and offers improved Window Dissection™ technology.
Microsoft Excel integration and remote task execution are two other features added in AutoMate 6. According to Snell, Microsoft Excel is the most commonly automated application by their users, which is why it was important to make it easier to automate and retrieve date from Excel. In addition, remote task execution allows users to execute a task on a remote machine by simply specifying the hostname or IP of the machine and the password.
AutoMate 6 includes over 160 available actions and triggers that can be rapidly assembled into an automated solution. Available actions include launching and closing of applications, web sites, ftp and email sessions, sending keystrokes to multiple windows interactively, focusing windows, FTP transfers, reading and writing to files, or sending email.
AutoMate 6 improvements including the following:
—Improved Window Dissection™ Technology
—Remote Task Execution
—Microsoft Excel Integration
—Secure FTP
—Secure HTTP
—Event Database
—Real-time Messages Window
—Native Terminal Emulation Support (Enterprise version only)
—SNMP (Enterprise version only)
—System Backup and Restore
—Streamlined User-Interface
—Faster Task Execution
AutoMate 6 will be available in two different versions: Professional and Enterprise. The Enterprise version of AutoMate 6 includes the additional functionality of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and native terminal emulation support, as well as more flexible deployment options.
SNMP support allows complete automation of an organization’s network infrastructure. AutoMate 6 supports SNMP Get, SNMP Set, SNMP Walk and SNMP traps giving users the ability to automate functions related to their servers, workstations, routers, switches and hubs. SNMP support also enables the integration of AutoMate with products such as Microsoft MOM.
Native terminal emulation support allows organizations to automate tasks to existing legacy systems, eliminating the need for third-party terminal emulation software and tedious “screen-scraping” operations. “Many organizations still have legacy systems in place, and many times these are the systems that need the most automation,” said Snell. “AutoMate 6’s terminal emulation will benefit many organizations by reducing their cost and time to automate and manage their legacy systems.”
In order to create tasks, AutoMate breaks down common IT actions into “visual” steps, which emulate an actual user performing a sequence of steps manually. AutoMate uses wizards to guide users through the process of building a task by breaking tasks down into various actions and triggers. AutoMate is made up of three primary components: the Task Administrator, which is used to customize and direct Automate; the Task Builder, which visually sequences task steps to be carried out; and the Task Service, which runs as a system service and does the work of launching triggered tasks.
After the March 28th release date, there will be a fully-functional trial version of Automate 6 available for download. Go to http://www.networkautomation.com/ for more information.
