Mr. Mayr, what are the new features of version 6.2?
There are indeed quite a lot of new features and extensions. We take special pride in the new IT Correlations module. It allows the users to define correlations and dependencies, for example between user accounts and services. This means that you can analyse which services on all inventoried IT systems have been started from a particular user account. So you can analyse beforehand what impact a password change for this account will have.
What is more, two new products can be inventoried now: it is now possible to scan Oracle databases, and the same is true for the data backup configuration of Symantec Backup Exec. With the new version of Docusnap, you can also document the DFS roots settings for Windows servers. For our plans and overviews, we now use a native Visio format.
The most extensive development, however, is that we programmed an x64 architecture which brings us a high productivity gain. Along with this, there will be changes in the support of the various databases for Docusnap: starting with version 6.2, only Microsoft SQL databases can be used.
Why did you stop the support for Access databases?
This step was necessary in order to benefit from the full functionality and performance of SQL Server. Otherwise, this wouldn’t have been possible. Support for Access databases has been a bottleneck for the Docusnap software and we had to make our application fit for future demands. So we decided to discontinue this support to avoid performance problems and the restrictions with respect to database scalability.
What where the biggest challenges when programming the current release?
In the first place, the migration to the x64 architecture I mentioned, and the modifications to the program code that went with it. We encountered some challenges, too, when it came to inventorying Symantec Backup Exec because Symantec made some programming changes between the 2010 and 2012 versions. This considerably modified the program logic.
Of course, we paid particular attention to stability and scalability in conjunction with large IT landscapes. This has been a special concern for us right from the start.
What do you like most about the new version?
Above all, the fact that the user interface now focuses on the essential features. The menu items are more clearly identifiable and there is a separate management and administration area now. This makes the software more user-friendly and enhances its structure.
But I must say that I’m particularly taken with the IT Correlations module because it presents a completely new way to analyse an IT landscape. Information which is well hidden and which would otherwise be hard to retrieve can be obtained easily with this feature. This module is an extension of the IT Relations feature; the correlations can be analysed and updated automatically. Until now, this was only possible manually.
Can you already tell us something on future features and extensions?
We are working on different ideas. On the one hand, we are investigating a possibility to simplify the inventory scan of very large IT landscapes which are distributed over various locations. Let’s call it distributed inventory using proxy scanners. What we want to achieve here is better scaling and a simplified integration.
In addition, we’re working on how to improve the visualisation of IT documentation. Maybe there will be special features for the SOAP network protocol or the JSON data format. But these developments are only in the early stages. Let’s see which ideas will make it into the actual application.
Mr. Mayr, thank you very much for taking the time for this interview.
Ingemar Mayr is one of the managing directors of itelio GmbH and the product manager responsible for the Docusnap documentation tool.
