Boise State University Streamlines Compliance Audits With nLayers Insight and H&W; CMDB Discovery and Mapping Leader Helps University Gain Visibility into Production Environment for More Effective IT Operations

Business Wire, March 27, 2006

SAN JOSE, Calif. & BOISE, Idaho -- nLayers, the standard in IT service discovery, and H&W Computer Systems, Inc., a leading provider of software solutions to enterprise data centers, today announced that the Boise State University Office of Information Technology (OIT) is using nLayers' award-winning application discovery and mapping technology to gain a better understanding of how IT services are deployed and used across the University's application infrastructure. nLayers InSight enables Boise State's OIT to track IT changes, more effectively manage compliance efforts, streamline software asset management efforts, and pinpoint network vulnerabilities.

"nLayers looks at our applications, servers, and network and immediately gives us an accurate and detailed picture of exactly what is going on. It shows us what we have, how it is being used, who is using it and how often," said David O'Neill, executive director, Boise State University Office of Information Technology. "Implementing nLayers InSight to get a better understanding of how our applications are deployed and used enables us to provide better service to our users, manage risks and ensure compliance."

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) is responsible for Boise State's network infrastructure, mission-critical applications and IT services. Because nearly every activity at Boise State is affected by IT, the OIT is governed by careful strategic planning and is subject to frequent audits and measurement. The Boise State OIT first decided to implement nLayers InSight as a way to cut the time and staff resources involved in preparing for the various internal and external audits it frequently undergoes.

In September 2005, the OIT partnered with systems integrator H&W Computer Systems, Inc., to deploy nLayers InSight through a phased approach that first used the solution's passive discovery to give the OIT a complete, "big picture" view of its network, components and applications, illustrating demand, usage and the relationships between applications and infrastructure.

"As the largest institute of higher learning in the region, Boise State has a vast, open infrastructure serving tens of thousands of users," said Jamie Nolan, practice strategy manager for H&W's Application Infrastructure Management division. "We were confident that our expertise combined with the nLayers software would give Boise State the visibility it needed to manage its complex environment in the most effective way possible. It did just that."

In the second stage, the OIT selected several specific application systems for nLayers to map and track more closely, including a third-party food services point of sale (POS) system, and a medical records application. nLayers InSight enabled Boise State's OIT to gain a granular understanding of how the applications were actually functioning within the University's network, possibly uncovering compliance issues or other vulnerabilities.

"We are subject to several audits, covering a range of different parameters. At the end of the day, we are accountable for the security and compliance of all of the various systems and applications that we support," said O'Neill. "Basically, nLayers InSight 'turns on' and dynamically creates an application dependency diagram that gives the visibility we need to prepare for audits and ensure that all of the applications are compliant - even those that are managed by outside vendors. It's pretty slick."

In the final phase of the implementation, Boise State used nLayers InSight to compile a comprehensive inventory of University's applications that includes actual usage information. By comparing the information nLayers InSight gathers against the University's software license records, the OIT is able to assess the real demand against licensed software served verses the number of licenses purchased. In so doing OIT contracts for the "right" number of licenses, ensures compliance with license agreements and makes better overall software purchasing decisions.

"The ability to quickly get to the 'who, what, where, when' of an IT environment by tracking all of the relationships between applications and infrastructure components is the cornerstone for effective IT operations," said Gili Raanan, founder and CEO of nLayers. "nLayers InSight provides immediate value for any organization looking to improve IT service and optimize operational efficiency through consolidation, change management, software asset management and other similar process automation initiatives."

About nLayers

nLayers is the recognized leader in application discovery and mapping. Using its award-winning real-time dependency mapping technology, nLayers InSight automatically uncovers and maps the complex relationships between applications and technology infrastructure to provide the visibility IT organizations need to accelerate critical IT initiatives. nLayers is the only dependency mapping solution that combines passive and active discovery approaches to provide an end-to-end, "living" model of the IT environment that continuously tracks resource dependencies, demand, usage and service levels. nLayers customers are tracking and managing more than half a million systems, two million services, 5 million CMDB configuration items (CIs), and 14 million dependencies worldwide for a wide range of critical IT service and cost management initiatives, including change and configuration management, ITIL/CMDB development, business service management (BSM), data center automation (DCA), and capacity planning. nLayers is a privately held company headquartered in San Jose, California, and at www.nlayers.com.