News
BMC Patrol Becomes First Application Certified for Windows
- By Scott Bekker
- February 10, 2000
With just a week to go before the Windows 2000 launch,
Microsoft Corp.’s testing partner has managed to push the first Certified for
Windows 2000 Server application through the test process.
BMC Software Inc. (www.bmc.com)
today announced that its BMC Patrol service-level management software was the
first product to pass muster for Windows 2000 Server certification.
The product was not yet listed in Microsoft’s Windows 2000
database as certified this afternoon. It also did not appear on the Veritest (www.veritest.com) Web site as a certified
application. Microsoft outsources its Windows 2000 Certification testing to
Veritest.
But Deborah Willingham, vice president, Windows Marketing,
Microsoft Corp., provided a statement for BMC’s news release. “We are pleased
to see that BMC Software is one of the leaders in advancing the value of the
Windows 2000 Server family,” Willingham was quoted as saying.
While Veritest has been testing client products for Windows
2000 Professional certification for several months, the company only opened its
lab to server-side products on Jan. 31. Fourteen client products have earned
Certified for Windows 2000 Professional logos since October.
Microsoft will launch three of the four members of the
Windows 2000 family of operating systems next Thursday in San Francisco:
Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server, and Windows 2000 Advanced
Server. Microsoft says it will deliver a new SKU, Windows 2000 Datacenter
Server, in June.
Microsoft classified applications for Windows 2000 in
several layers. Applications that are certified must pass stringent
requirements that test that the application takes advantage of manageability
improvements in Windows 2000, and that the application behaves itself during
installation and operation.
Another class of applications, Windows 2000 Ready, are
applications that have been tested by ISVs on Windows 2000. The designation
means the vendor will support customers who run the application on Windows
2000. That level of application testing more closely resembles Microsoft’s
previous logo program under Windows NT 4.0.
To achieve Certified for Windows 2000 Server status,
applications must provide robust, self-repairing installation that helps
minimize conflicts among shared components (i.e. DLL conflicts); facilitate
easier deployment and management; simplify administration, making it easier for
users to find resources through an enterprise network; centralize and unify the
process of configuring or monitoring computers and applications; and simplify
the administration of drivers and applications to deliver more administrative
control, according to Microsoft’s Web site.
The version of BMC Patrol for Windows 2000 provides
monitoring of the Active Directory, the Distributed file system, dynamic DNS,
availability, and Windows Management Instrumentation. BMC will make the
software generally available in April. – Scott Bekker
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.