Another worthy demonstrator was Integrien showing its Integrien Alive application, which intends to simplify the identification of IT problems in the enterprise. Better yet, the software can recognize a problem scenario that it’s seen previously and alert the IT staff that a disaster is brewing. For example, if it knows that database cache files grow alarmingly right before the SQL Server goes "Boom!" Integrien’s software can (and, I gather, automatically will, without human encouragement) watch those cache files and issue a technology "Uh-Oh" before your worry-o-meter tips into the red zone. Using predictive analytics and an interdependent chain of components, the company says Integrien Alive learns what’s normal for the company and recognizes when the situation goes out of whack. Once it sees a pattern of abnormal events that leads to a problem building, it will send an alert telling the IT department that, for instance, there’s a 72 percent chance of database failure in the next 15 minutes. I spent some time with the vendor at the booth afterward, and if the technology works the way it did in the demo, it could save your company a pile of cash (and the remaining hair on your head).

This isn’t about the way your IT department operates, per se, but it’s sure about an annoying, expensive problem that’s often dumped in IT’s lap. SailPoint Technologies showed its software to manage regulatory compliance, which the company’s speaker claimed in his presentation costs U.S. companies $27 billion. Today, most companies rely on spreadsheets, stacks of paper and expensive consultants to prove to auditors that they’re not another Enron. Instead, SailPoint says, a risk scorecard assembles data that IT people need to examine employee risk, calculated by dozens of attributes. When you click on an item on the scorecard, you drill into the data. It appears to be very cool and extremely useful for enterprises for both compliance and security purposes. For example, you can examine individual risk profiles to determine who has access to key company databases. You can activate mitigating controls to, say, monitor the user’s behavior and summarize access approvals for managerial overview.

Speaking of managerial overview: if you’re concerned about losing company laptops or—even scarier—the data stored on them, you may want to ask for more information from Alcatel-Lucent Ventures. Its Project Evros is a 3G-based mobile security and management tool designed to let enterprises gain control over laptops, which, as you well know, are hard to update, control and manage. The company’s solution is a PC card, which contains a 3G modem, Linux computer and a battery, all in one device, along with GPS and encryption services. The PC Card essentially becomes the laptop’s ignition key; the system won’t work without the card. With the card in the computer, the software can continue to apply patches, back up the data and even deliver e-mail. If the system is lost, the network administrator can issue a remote kill command even if the PC is turned off. The next time the system is started, it will require a special one-time password that the user can get only by calling the IT department. The company expects to ship Project Evros by the end of 2007.