Rafe Needleman's (anlayst for Nokia Innovent) post about how corporate-style backup devices should now be targeted to home users, has me reminiscing about backup applications--but of a different kind--to backup the configurations of all the network devices that are sprinkled across many tech businesses. Here's what I mean.
A few years back, when working at ArcanaNetworks, a couple of us realized how we could wrap their XML-based backend automation engine into a focused backup-and-restore-style application to archive the configurations of IP-configurable devices, such as routers, firewalls, and so on. I'm not sure what the state of the industry is now, but back then most IT administrators would tweak their various device settings but have no archive of those settings. It was usually all in their head or in a bunch of Perl scripts or adhoc archives or simply the devices themselves.
Making a backup-style application that's almost trivial to use which can assist a small company with a couple servers, a router and a firewall and still scale up to an organization with hundreds of devices scattered across the world is a challenge. I like the idea because the user-experience metaphor is simple and one that most people are comfortable with. It's an interesting problem.
Posted by Loren at October 23, 2003 09:03 AM