Spiceworks, the Austin-based free IT management software vendor, is making strides with the release of a new version of its software. The new version – the 17th release from the company – comes with support for larger networks (upt0 1000 computers). To put this in perspective, the previous version supported networks with fewer than 500 computers. Other key feature additions in this version include real-time SQL Server monitoring, enhanced scan scheduling, editable network maps, help desk queues and SSL support.

For the uninitiated, Spiceworks offers free IT management software that lets you monitor your network, manage IT assets and run a help desk. The company claims to have over 830,000 business users in 196 countries worldwide. The software can also be run in MSP mode for service providers who provide network management and help desk services for their clients. How do they keep it free? They run ads inside the user interface.

Some of the features they announced in this release includes:

• Real-Time SQL Server Monitoring – provides real-time monitoring of key SQL Server performance metrics, including transaction load, I/O throughput and disk space consumption.
• Dynamic Scan Control – gives users more flexibility and control over how their networks are scanned, including allowing individual and customized scans by device, subnet and department. Better support for remote locations is also included.
• SSL Support – offers full SSL encryption to provide greater security within organizations and for MSPs and businesses using the software to remotely manage multiple offices and locations.
• Customizable Network Maps – provides the ability to create and view multiple network maps, edit existing network elements and add new elements, change the layout and organization of the elements, and add annotations.
• Help Desk Routing and Queuing – allows users to group and work help desk tickets based on the content or source in the ticket – such as “all printer problems” or “tickets from the marketing organization.” Rules can be based on any data attribute in the system, including title, summary, source, severity, employee, or user defined attributes.

Spiceworks also reached out to its community to add support for multiple languages in the software – 10 languages to be exact including German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, Danish and Croatian. The Spiceworks community continues to add more languages to the software.

Spiceworks also told me that most Spiceworks users are located here in the USA but they also have users in parts of Europe, Australia, India, Brazil etc.

Spiceworks has an interesting business model when it comes to IT management software and there are a lot of eyes on it to see how it performs. More details on the release here.

IT management has become an integral part of any enterprise and the choices that are available out there make it easy for any IT team to keep watch. Vendors like IBM, BMC from the Big 4 league and solutions from the point-product vendors like IpSwitch, Solarwinds, ManageEngine etc. have given IT across the globe the ability to keep track of what is happening in their bedrooms! These tools also become important for the IT support team during incident management or problem management.

Some of these tools have integration for mobile devices, where you can keep track of your infrastructure from your mobile devices. But I recently came across a company that talks about infrastructure management from the mobile device only. RoveIT is a Canada-based company who, as they put it, “helps IT administrators resolve incidents faster, reduce network downtime and maximize IT efficiencies”. They help manage IT infrastructure via mobile devices.

How does RoveIT do it? They have two components – Rove Mobile Admin Server and the Rove Mobile Client. The server component is installed on a server within the enterprise network that connects to the different pieces of the IT infrastructure – servers, network components and services. The Rove Mobile Client is installed on the mobile device and connects to the Admin Server to get information. They seem to have built support for most mobile platforms including Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and iPhone. The iPhone support was their latest addition into the Rove IT management family. VPN is not required for the connection.

They package it into two packages – basic and advanced. The basic package can be used if you are looking at general Windows management, remote access and basic networking functions. Other platforms and services can be managed in the advanced edition. If you are looking at comprehensive incident management, you may be better off looking at the advanced edition.

Even though the iPhone interface looks better, the company says that the Blackberry option is more popular. That is no surprise considering the high penetration of Blackberry in the enterprise.

Rove IT started out in 2001 and claim to have more than 2500 customers worldwide. Pricing starts at US$295 for the basic edition and $595 for the advanced edition.