FRAMINGHAM (03/27/2000) - We used a 10M-bps switched Ethernet network for the tests. We used four 200-MHz PCs with 128M bytes of RAM to act as the remote server, with the Apex and Cybex products. Netscape Communicator 4.71 acted as the browser interface with the Compaq Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. products.
Features (25 percent of total score)
Remote access methodology, remote power on/off, graceful shutdown of operating system, user administration, remote floppy, integration into other management tools, vendor independence, environmental monitoring of the server, access interfaces, alerts and notification features.
Ease of use (20 percent of total score)
Remote floppy capability, remote access methodology, application navigation and application user interface problems.
Setup and configuration (20 percent of total score)Initial setup and configuration, user administration, fault recovery and software reinstallation.
Scalability (15 percent of total score)
How many servers can be managed through one product? Can the product be integrated into a larger management platform? Does the card administration scale?
Security (10 percent of total score)
Physical security, password security/encryption and authentication/access control.
Price per server (5 percent of total score)The total cost of the product as the number of servers needed increased.
Documentation (5 percent of total score)Quality, ease of use and completeness.