Product Previews

Near-Time serves up blogs, wikis on demand

Near-Time later this month plans to launch a hosted collaboration service for creating workspaces that leverage blogs, wikis, and group calendar functions. The service, also called Near-Time, allows workers to instantly launch collaborative communities via any Web browser. Members can choose to collaborate privately and make some or all of the content publicly available. The service is designed to combine the nonlinear, ad-hoc nature of wikis with the time-sensitive, broadcast essence of blogs. Near-Time is based on standards such as RSS, XML, Atom, and Ajax and allows content to be reused. The service is currently available in a free beta version. The commercial launch will include a free, entry-level service and fee-based advanced services, including encryption, domain mapping, and file sharing. Service pricing will start at $4.95 per month.
Near-Time, Near-Time

Symantec tackles threats at the gateway
Symantec has unveiled the SGS (Symantec Gateway Security) 1600 Series of UTM (unified threat management) appliances, along with Version 3.0 of its Symantec Gateway Security software. Filling the gap between the company’s SGS 460 appliance for SOHO and SGS 5600 series for larger networks, the SGS 1620 and 1660 models combine stateful firewall, SSL and IPSec VPN, anti-spam, anti-virus, intrusion prevention, content filtering services, plus one year of maintenance and content updates for all functions for $1,199 and $3,844, respectively. Symantec recommends the 1620 for networks of 100 protected nodes, and the 1660 for networks of 200 protected nodes.
Symantec Gateway Security 1600 Series, Symantec

Peering into the network storm

Entuity last week unfurled Version 4.5 of its Eye of the Storm network management suite, equipping administrators with greater visibility and control over the network. Designed to perform continual automated network device and topology discovery and management, Eye of the Storm now offers hierarchical administrative support, which enables network admins to define users and groups and the level of network visibility. Version 4.5 also brings support for firewalls, VPN gateways, servers, and hosts. Pricing starts at $50,000.
Eye of the Storm 4.5, Entuity

Optovia boosts disaster recovery

Optovia has released SpanExpress, an optical amplifier designed to aid business continuance and disaster recovery in the event of a datacenter loss. SpanExpress allows enterprises to use storage area networks and optical transport technologies to locate datacenters as far as 200 kilometers away. SpanExpress aims to eliminate the need to boost the optical signal periodically along the transmission line when replicating storage traffic over long distances. 
SpanExpress, Optovia