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ProdexNet’s new management and reporting
application enables complete real-time administration and
visibility of all readers in an RFID network.
By Jonathan Collins
Apr. 15, 2004 - Network management
software provider ProdexNet has developed an RFID version
of its core NetGather application to provide a real-time management
and reporting system for enterprise RFID networks. The new
product—dubbed NetGather for RFID—delivers a centralized
management console that provides full control and visibility
of all readers in an RFID network.
In 2001, ProdexNet debuted its first integrated IT reporting
solution, NetGather, which was designed to draw operational
data from a company’s IT infrastructure to provide reports
and alerts so that a company could better understand and interpret
how that infrastructure was impacting its core business. Developing
a version for RFID implementations required ProdexNet to add
a new central console as well as ensure that the new software
could pull data from a range of applications and hardware
in real-time.
According the company, creating a version of its IT infrastructure
management software for RFID networks was a logical step.
“RFID networks will be managed by IT people who already
want to manage that network the same way they manage their
IT infrastructure,” says Sujatha Bodapati, president
and founder of ProdexNet, which is based in Saratoga, Calif.
Such business service management systems have become the big
buzz in IT over the past few years, according to Bodapati
who is confident that as RFID deployments grow from pilots
to company-wide implementations, there will be an increasing
need to manage and understand RFID networks and the impact
they have on business processes. “A lot of companies
in pilot stage are already seeing reader errors flagged but
don’t know exactly where that reader is or what it is
doing,” says Bodapati.
NetGather for RFID enables the management of the RFID readers,
middleware and any business processes and activities directly
related to readers and tags. Displayed in the form of a central
console or dashboard on a computer monitor, the NetGather
for RFID application provides a single high-level view of
the entire network but can also be used to drill down to show
specific real-time data by market region, warehouse, store,
distribution center, and other locations, even down to individual
reader performance and configuration.
The software also enables alerts and includes analysis and
reporting tools to automatically create usable information
from events detected in the RFID network. “Reports can
be generated to show, for example, the most active or least
active readers or for other customer-determined SLAs [service
level agreements],” says Bodapati.
As the product evolves, the company says, it will eventually
deliver end-to-end management of the entire RFID infrastructure,
which will also include the management of the back-end applications
and any other hardware devices that might be part of this
infrastructure.
NetGather for RFID connects to readers through Sun
Microsystems’ RFID Event Manager. ProdexNet turned
to as a way to avoid having to develop its own software interfaces
for each reader manufacturers specifications. “That
has helped us get to market far more quickly,” says
Bodapati.
Around nine months ago, ProdexNet began to develop on NetGather
for RFID and to work with Sun to enable it to connect to Sun’s
RFID Event Manager. Currently, NetGather for RFID is available
only in a beta version but is set to ship commercially later
this quarter.
ProdexNet maintains that the application may not always be
tied to Sun’s software. “We could connect to another
middleware solution without much problem or connect directly
to the readers. We will be led by our customers needs,”
says Bodapati.
The company says it expects to sell its NetGather for RFID
application through Sun as well as through systems integrators
and directly to customers as well. Pricing information is
not yet available.
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