Media Coverages
April 15, 2008
GridApp Boosts Automation Clarity
Company adds more automation abilities to flagship software
By Jeff Feinman
New York City-based GridApp Systems has added the ability to automate "custom events" to its flagship software.
Clarity 4.5, the new version of GridApp's database automation tool released in early March, brings the Clarity Actions feature for automating database activities like changing user information across multiple databases or ensuring the adequacy of table spaces in a database, according to Robert Gardos, CEO of GridApp.
The Clarity Actions Library has pre-built scripts to carry out tasks like SQL 2000 to 2005 upgrades, upgrades to the Oracle database, user and security management with best practices, and data migration. Company executives said that Clarity Actions could be executed by users without a large amount of database skills because of the automation of process repetition, reporting and tracking functions. Clarity Actions is integrated with the product's security, logging and job tracking model, which allows database teams to track tasks and reduce oversight.
Security enhancements, like greater password protection and more controlled patching privileges, strengthen the storing of sensitive content by removing it from centrally stored logs and protecting against disclosure of sensitive customer information, said GridApp.
Gardos said that Clarity 4.5 knows how Oracle, SQL and other databases log information, and analyzes created logs and obfuscates all sensitive information in them. "That becomes really important because when you have other automation solutions out there, they don't have any awareness," he said. "If they do any of this, they'll grab a log and save it, and someone can access it. Little do they know that the root password or system password is now available to anybody with access to that."
Focusing on the Content
GridApp was created six years ago with the objective of providing deployment and patching automation around the major database applications, including Oracle, SQL Server and Sybase, Gardos said.
"You can't expect a DBA to be able to automate the deployment of complex environments because it's constantly changing," Gardos said. "Anytime a company launches a new product - all the automation that had been created becomes irrelevant. We focus all our value on the content instead of the framework, actually building a generalized way of deploying applications.
"One of the most expensive line positions in the IT organization is the DBA. Meanwhile, they're spending most of their time doing-low-value tasks, like deploying, patching, and basic administration. What we'd like to do is cut all that time in half through our automation product, which would allow these very smart DBAs to make applications run faster, interpret data, and tasks that drive value for your business."