December 9, 1996 10 AM ET
NetSuite simplifies network design
Advanced Professional Design allows nearly instant views
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NetSuite Development L.P. will roll out this week software aimed at simplifying the often complex process of setting up a corporate network. The company will release the $2,500 NetSuite Advanced Professional Design Version 2.0 design software with a whiteboard feature that allows network administrators to conceptually design a network and view it almost immediately, said officials at the Wayland, Mass., company. The company also will introduce its NetSuite Toolkit, which converts network diagrams and hardware specifications into HTML documents on the Internet or an intranet. The $1,000 NetSuite Toolkit also lets administrators view wiring and cable layouts within a building, officials said. The whiteboard feature in NetSuite Advanced Professional Design allows users to bypass the software's validation process, which ensures that all hardware devices will work in conjunction with each other in the network before mapping out a complete network configuration. Wayne State College, in Wayne, Neb., is using the software to design and plan local high school networks as well as its own. "This product saves us lots of time," said beta tester John Dunning, network systems specialist for the college. "Before, we had four databases where all of this information was kept." NetSuite also added an automatic device replacement feature to NetSuite Advanced Professional Design that enables users to replace multiple devices on a network diagram simultaneously, rather than on a device-by-device basis. In the previous version, to replace all Cisco Systems Inc. Catalyst 5000 concentrators in a diagram with Cabletron MMAC+ concentrators, a network administrator was required to drag and drop an MMAC+ icon onto each Catalyst 5000 device, officials said. In the latest iteration, the software can automatically replace one device with the other in one sweep. The products will be available this week through distributors and from NetSuite.
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