If Quest Software’s corporate mantra could be characterized as "Stop competing and start creating,” the mantra of the customers of The Company Formerly Known As NetPro, now absorbed by Quest, might well be “What the [heck] do I do now?”
The good news: You have until December 31, 2009 to figure that out.
The headache-causing news: Quest is sunsetting many of the NetPro products, based on its product rationalization process which took into account such things as customer disruption, maintenance and development costs, integration possibilities and dependencies, and market demands.
Support
Quest says that NetPro and Quest products will be supported by their respective support organizations at least for a few months, though product support will ultimately shift to Quest. For NetPro products, go to the NetPro support site: http://www.netpro.com/support/support-overview.
For Quest products, go to https://support.quest.com/SUPPORT/index?page=home.
Licensing
Quest’s licensing model is based on a per-user basis, which means that for every enabled Active Directory (AD) user account a license is required. Most NetPro products were licensed on a per-heartbeat basis, literally one license required per person. Quest will change the “go-forward” NetPro products to the Quest model of licensing, and customers who need more licenses will get them at no charge, the company says. Where the NetPro product is not the go-forward product, you will be able to switch to the continuing product for free, if you kept your discontinued product up to date under a current maintenance contract. Except in a few cases, Quest says the best option if you own a product that’s going to be sunsetted is to upgrade to the go-forward product ASAP.
What Got the Pink Slip and What Stayed
Not all NetPro products were sunsetted. Some will be integrated with Quest products. Here’s the list of what products will go forward:
· Quest Reporter versus NetPro ReportADmin: The go-forward product is Reporter.
· Quest Group Policy Manager versus NetPro GPOADmin: The go-forward product is GPOADmin.
· Quest Recovery Manager for Active Directory versus NetPro RestoreADmin: The go-forward product is Recovery Manager along with Forest Edition, though Forest Edition won’t be part of the free upgrade.
· Quest ActiveRoles Server versus NetPro Access Manager: The go-forward product is ActiveRoles Server.
· Quest Message Stats versus NetPro Message Analysis: The go-forward product is Message Stats.
· Quest Spotlight on Active Directory versus NetPro Directory Analyzer/Directory Troubleshooter: The go-forward product is a combined pack; current customers can upgrade to the pack for free.
· Quest Password Manager versus NetPro SelfServiceADmin: The go-forward product is Password Manager.
· Quest InTrust for Active Directory/Exchange/File Access versus NetPro ChangeAuditor for Active Directory/Exchange/File Server: The go-forward product will be a new solution integrating InTrust and ChangeAuditor. (The actual InTrust and ChangeAuditor lines will continue to be supported until Dec. 31, 2009. Quest will continue to develop and sell the InTrust product line and will develop a new platform for ChangeAuditor. The message for now is "stay on ChangeAuditor; we'll create a new product and then you'll move.")
· Quest InTrust and Knowledge Portal versus NetPro LogADmin: The go-forward product is InTrust and Knowledge Portal.
Tying Up Loose Ends
· NetPro’s LogADmin will be sunsetted, but customers with aggregated logs will get a migration utility that Quest will write so data won't be lost.
· NetPro’s DSExpert will go forward.
· NetPro’s ADMC tool will still be free and available at TurbochargeAD.org, which Don Jones will continue to run.
· NetPro’s ReportADmin for ACS will become a free tool.
· NetPro’s MissionControl with MIIS/ILM monitoring will go forward; Business Insight will be a component.
· NetPro’s SecurityManager will go forward.
· NetPro’s DNSAnalyzer will be sunsetted.
For more information, see Quest Software’s white paper at http://www.quest.com/quest_site_assets/pdf/Quest-NetPro-Product-Rationalization-Roadmap.pdf.
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