Start-up eases Unix server management

CrossSync should help Unix administrators make system-wide changes with ease

Silicon Valley start-up Crossjibe has launched a software tool that allows Unix administrators to make system-wide changes and track systems inventory from a single point of access.

CrossSync will ensure that an organisation's servers are kept in sync, and record changes across systems to help businesses comply with regulation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act said Crossjibe.

The software will be free for companies with up to 10 servers, and Crossjibe has promised to keep additional server licences "affordable" so that organisations of any size can adopt the platform.

Romildo Wildgrube, Crossjibe founder and chief executive, said that many years as a system administrator managing complex IT systems had prompted him to design a solution that would save the continuous work of going from server to server for change after change.

"Today's IT organisations, large and small, find themselves with an increasingly heterogeneous mix of Unix systems," he said.

"Whenever those organisations make policy, security or user-access decisions that require changes to those servers, a timely and costly change cycle ensues, often leading to server downtime, a lack of synchronisation across the various systems, and no record of when changes were made and by whom."

CrossSync works by installing management agents on Unix servers to allow administrators to manage systems remotely from a centralised console. Wildgrube explained that the agents will also help when managing environments with very restricted security rules.

"If you have the console server in a network segment that allows no communication with other systems, installing an agent will allow them to talk to each other and you won't need to open your firewalls," he said.

CrossSync will come with several modules and an open application programming interface so that administrators can adapt the platform to their own requirements.