SMARTS launches Net system management

System Management Arts (SMARTS) today launched InCharge for the Internet to simplify the installation, configuration, and day-to-day management of Internet and intranet servers.

The company is touting InCharge as a complete systems-management solution for the Internet and intranets; it features functions for adding and managing email, Web, ftp, Usenet newsgroups, and domain naming services.

Priced at $6,500 per server, the system is aimed at systems administrators who are new to the Net and want to add services without having to learn any Net-specific jargon or complicated processes. It boasts a graphical interface and embedded intelligence; for example, if the manager changes the configuration, the system automatically validates the changes and then applies them to recoverable transactions.

The software also monitors the system and services to detect problems and then corrects them per to user-defined policies, according to SMARTS officials. The software also provides statistics on system and service usage.

InCharge requires a Sparc workstation or a 486 Pentium PC running Solaris with 32MB of RAM and 500MB of disk space.

SMARTS is a spin-off of Columbia University's Distributed Computing and Communications Lab.