"UpdateNow" module lets company cast a wider language net
San Mateo (08/09/97) — Moving to extend its Castanet push technology beyond Java applet distribution, Marimba Inc. said it will offer add-on modules to install and update applications written in most programming languages to desktops across intranets and the Internet.
Available later this month, the UpdateNow module includes server software and a software developer’s kit to let packaged and corporate applications automatically update themselves from a Castanet Transmitter server. UpdateNow will also include an optional standalone client.
Available in September, a corresponding Guardian Security module compresses, encrypts, and signs the software updates, providing security that hitherto has been unavailable when distributing non-Java applications, according to David Cope, Marimba’s vice president of marketing.
Analysts said Marimba originally targeted its push technology at content updates. As that market got crowded, the company switched to pushing Java applications.
The UpdateNow feature widens Marimba’s embrace to include files written in C, C++, Visual Basic, Java, and other languages.
“It is one step in what will have to be a whole series of steps to make it a full-fledged, robust, application-distribution and management tool,” said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at the Hurwitz Group, a consulting company in Newton, MA.
The next necessary step is the capability to plug in to network management frameworks from Computer Associates, Tivoli Systems, and Hewlett-Packard, according to Hurwitz’s Gottheil.
Although the product’s users applauded the technology’s potential to reduce the running around associated with software updates, one user said his company has run into a human problem with automatic software distribution pilots.
“It rattles the cages of a lot of people who aren’t used to seeing their desktops changed overnight,” said Tim Hewitt, Webmaster for Scana, an energy holding company in Columbia, SC.
“They think hackers have broken in,” Hewitt added.
Marimba Inc., in Palo Alto, CA, can be reached at (650) 328-5282, or at its Web site, https://www.marimba.com.
