Quest Software Delivers the Industry’s First Comprehensive Database Management Console for Oracle, DB2 and SQL Server

Quest Central™ for Databases 4.0 Offers Unparalleled Domain Functionality and Performance Management for Today’s Three Most Popular Database Platforms

HostReview.com
Wednesday, October 29, 2003; 12:00 AM

IRVINE, Calif., October 28, 2003 - Quest Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: QSFT), a leading provider of application management solutions, today announced Quest Central™ for Databases 4.0, the first database management solution to combine rich domain-specific functionality and full performance management into a single console for heterogeneous database environments including Oracle, DB2 (distributed and mainframe) and SQL Server. The industry's only solution to provide built-in expertise and administration capabilities across all three database platforms, Quest Central for Databases minimizes database differences and removes platform barriers, allowing database administrators (DBAs) to cross train to maximize the productivity of existing staff.

"The landscape of today's IT organizations now commonly includes a mix of multiple database platforms. In fact, 100 percent of the organizations within the global 1000 are currently using more than one RDBMS platform in their production environment," said Charlie Garry, senior program director, META Group. "But, as organizations seek to manage this heterogeneous database environment they do not have the headcount to add additional DBA staff to manage each diverse platform. Comprehensive heterogeneous database management solutions that offer rich features and extensive built-in expertise enable DBAs to manage all of their database instances, regardless of platform, without adding dedicated resources for each database."

Quest Central for Databases offers a rich set of domain-specific functionality for each database from a single console including database administration, SQL tuning, historical performance data, space management and performance diagnostics, based on Quest Spotlight® technology. It also provides a built-in Knowledge Base for each database environment and automated tuning methodology to help streamline performance management. In addition to offering heterogeneous database platform support, Quest Central for Databases also supports operating platforms including z/OS, OS/390, Unix, Linux and Windows.

"We manage approximately 300 database servers that host our customers' critical Web applications. Quest Central for Databases empowers us to proactively respond to issues by providing a real-time view through the Spotlight component," said Brian Knight, chief database architect for Fidelity Information Services. Knight, who is considered an SQL Server expert, has published six books on the topic, including SQL Server 2000 for the Experienced DBA and Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS.

"Utilizing Quest Central on our SQL Server databases has repeatedly enabled our team to resolve performance issues before the customer was affected. We have also found that Quest Central's ‘multi-server execute' feature has reduced the time to perform database changes from approximately four hours to a few minutes. Running Quest Central in a heterogeneous environment will further enhance the productivity of our DBA staff and practically eliminate costly database babysitting - which frees our team to focus on other important tasks," added Knight.

"Quest Central for Databases was designed to be the workbench database administrators use every day, all day," said John Newsom, vice president, Application Performance Management solutions, Quest Software. "As the integral resolution component in the Quest ‘detect, diagnose, resolve methodology' for application performance management, Quest Central for Databases gives DBAs the expertise to manage any database, regardless of the brand or the platform on which it runs."

Quest Application Performance Management

Quest Central is a component of the Quest Software strategy for Application Performance Management (APM), which provides end-to-end business views, detailed application views and deep expertise for each domain administrator within an IT organization. Products in the Quest APM family monitor critical application components, identify potential outages, speed time to repair through streamlined workflow, and report on and validate service levels. Quest APM products help organizations manage critical applications including Siebel, PeopleSoft, Oracle E-Business Suite, and SAP; databases such as Oracle, DB2, Sybase and SQL Server; as well as IBM WebSphere, BEA WebLogic and other custom Web/J2EE applications.

Pricing and Availability

Quest Central for Databases 4.0 is available now with pricing starting at $1,500 for a single tier "A" server running Microsoft SQL Server. A no-cost database Health Check is also available. This program provides a one-day consulting engagement that identifies - with concise reports and easy-to-read graphs - precisely where bottlenecks are occurring within the database. It then produces detailed recommendations on resolution.

The new Quest Central for Databases console can be used to manage any combination of Oracle, DB2 mainframe, DB2 distributed or SQL Server database platforms. For additional database-specific information Quest Central for Databases, please visit the following:

For Oracle environments please visit: http://www.quest.com/quest_central/qco/

For DB2 environments please visit: http://www.quest.com/quest_central/db2/

For SQL Server environments (see related announcement dated today), please visit: http://www.quest.com/solutions/sql_server.asp

About Quest Software, Inc.

Quest Software, Inc., a leader in application management, provides software for Application Confidence to 18,000 customers worldwide, including 75 percent of the Fortune 500. Quest products for database management, application performance management and Microsoft infrastructure management help customers develop, deploy, manage and maintain enterprise applications without expensive downtime or business interruption. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., Quest Software can be found in offices around the globe and at www.quest.com.