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Free server surveillance

Free server protection software offered to all South African companies.

To help reduce the threat against vulnerable and dispersed server infrastructures, Magix Integration has announced the local availability of ObserveIT, a simple management tool that seamlessly records all activities performed on one or more servers in a visual Server Diary in realtime.

In addition, Magix Integration is also offering all South African companies and organisations, irrespective of size or location, a limited version of ObserveIT-Express for free. The application is available as a download from Magix Integration’s home page www.magix.co.za. ObserveIT-Express offers the power of ObserveIT-Pro, but limits the user to recording the activities on a maximum of five servers over a 24-hour period. The full version has no maximum number of servers or length of time activities can be stored.

Amir Lubashevsky, executive director of Magix Integration says, “Up till now many South African businesses have left their server infrastructures vulnerable to human error and malice as more servers are booted up in remote locations and accessed by different people for different reasons. This state of affairs makes these servers almost unmanageable as more people have access to previously restricted functionality, making it impossible to control who does what until long after the fact. ObserveIT will change this.”

Amir Lubashevsky, executive director, Magix Integration

ObserveIT does not capture the activities on a server in text format as traditional log files do, but it offers users video recording capabilities that allow management to actually see what users did and when they did it, whether logged in on site or remotely. ObserveIT also offers location-based and free-text searching, allowing users to search for specific activities on any number of servers, or for any activities performed by certain users over a defined period of time.

“To ensure users do not make mistakes on certain screens, ObserveIT allows administrators to add Sticky Notes to any management interface,” adds Lubashevsky. “This ensures each user will be warned to do or not to do something by a pop-up note whenever they open a specific window.”

A question stressed IT managers always ask when confronted with video recording is how much storage space will be required by the application. ObserveIT uses a highly compressed format that only requires about 75 gigabytes of space to record the activities of 1000 servers per year. This is possible as the system only records activities, whether entered via keyboard or mouse, performed locally or remotely, while periods of inactivity are not recorded.

“ObserveIT also provides management with audit trails per server or an aggregated report for a number of servers,” says Lubashevsky. “Moreover, ObserveIT Identification Services identifies the actual user, even when using generic Windows login names like Administrator, giving the company full control over all its servers.”

A free copy of ObserveIT-Express can be downloaded from Magix Integration’s home page www.magix.co.za

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