Oculan 250 - Apr/May '04

Oculan 250

When it comes to network management and security products, medium-sized law firms can get caught in the middle. Products aimed at small firms might be inadequate, while large-firm options are often too expensive to be practical. One solution might be Oculan 250, released by Oculan Corp. The Oculan 250 is an easy-to-use multifunction network appliance that provides a host of network management and security functions at a price just shy of $10,000. This product is great for firms with 15 to 20 attorneys.

Oculan 250 Installation is no more difficult than adding a new computer to the network. The configuration process is accomplished through wizards and is simple enough for a non-tech person to complete. However, certain configuration decisions should be left to those “in the know.”

Once attached and configured, the device automatically discovers a network of any size. Within this network, it will actively collect data from up to 25 network devices, 25 servers, as well as 250 desktop, laptop or workstation machines. The network can include computers in multiple locations connected in a wide area network. For each managed device, a whole host of configurable reports can be viewed from any computer on the network.

The various reports allow you to track critical configuration and performance details for each attached device or computer. Typically, network management appliances have achieved this result using “agents.” Like their namesakes in “The Matrix” trilogy, the agents are hidden programs running on each network computer to monitor and report on the activities of the system. And, like their “Matrix” counterparts, they can be annoyingly intrusive. They use up processor capacity on each system and hog network bandwidth when it’s time to report in.

Rather than employing agents to track the activities of the devices, servers and desktops, Oculan taps into the Windows Management Interface, which is built in the Windows operating system and already doing an agent’s job. This allows the Oculan 250 to poll and report on the health of every attached system in great detail without adding additional burden to the network’s computers.

The breadth of information available from Oculan 250’s tracking activities is staggering. From a simple browser window you can view detailed information about individual computers, groups of computers or the network as a whole. You can “drill down” search for computers that meet certain criteria, such as performance levels, problem occurrences, or hardware or software configuration. For example, on a network of 250 computers, it would be no problem to find every computer that has less than 256MB of memory, needs to upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Acrobat and has had at least one crash in the past week. You also can view the top offenders in a variety of categories, such as bandwidth use, system or network errors, intrusion attempts and others. The variations are virtually endless.

That innovative and thoughtful approach is evident in each of the Oculan 250’s functions. It’s not possible in this small space to list all the functions or capabilities of the device.

For one, you don’t need to go looking for problems. The Oculan 250 continually monitors and probes the network looking for security issues. This is accomplished in two ways. The system scans the network for potential vulnerabilities and reports to the Information Technology staff on anything it finds. When an actual intrusion is detected, the system can trap it and put up a user-definable defense — anything from passive monitoring to permanent lockout.

If a firm outgrows the Oculan 250, the company offers the ability to add redundancy, the ability to distribute functions to several single-function devices in one or several locations.

Oculan has gone the distance to impress the IT folks. But in a refreshing move from a computer hardware manufacturer, Oculan took substantial steps to impress the business manager, as well. A number of the reports Oculan provides might be used in cost-benefit analyses that help make upgrade or new purchase decisions.

Besides its relatively low price, Oculan 250 can save firms money after it’s purchased. With the ease of use and degree of automation, firms using the Oculan 250 should find they need fewer or less-experienced (read “costly”) IT employees. For the smaller firms, the value-added reseller network is an attractive option for outsourcing the IT functions and saving even more.

Oculan 250 gives mid-sized firms most, if not all, of the features normally reserved for a big firm’s budget.

Oculan Corp.
(800) 247-5080

www.oculan.com

Price: $9,995

Windows 95/98/NT 4.0/2000/XP

Reviewed by David Hiersekorn, a legal researcher and brief writer based in Orange County, Calif. He can be reached at hiersekorn@
sbcglobal.net.

Apr/May '04 Issue

PROS
The Oculan 250 is affordable, easy to use and boasts an impressive features list. Low price and financing options bring whale-sized capabilities within the reach of minnow-sized budgets.

CONS
Although it’s a solid product, there are single point of failure possibilities.

VERDICT
The Oculan 250 reminds me of the first quality DVD player to drop below $200 when others sold for $600 or more. You can pay more to get the same features, but why?