WMI and WBEM Overview
CaptureIT communicates with the underlying hardware using a standard set of interfaces known as Windows Management Instrumentation. WMI is a Microsoft technology, but it is built on the WBEM standard introduced in recent years. Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) is an industry initiative to develop a standardized, non-proprietary means for accessing and sharing management information in an enterprise network. WBEM will result in technology that enables customers to collect, associate, and aggregate management data from diverse sources, thus creating richer and more accurate views of their enterprise environments. The WBEM initiative is intended to solve the problem of collecting end-to-end management and diagnostic data in enterprise networks that may include hardware from multiple vendors, numerous protocols and operating systems, and a legion of distributed applications, as illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Protocols and interfaces in an enterprise network
Typically, enterprise management has been tied to different protocols and interfaces for different disciplines; for example, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) has been used for network management, and the Desktop Management Interface (DMI) has been used for desktop systems management. WBEM assumes that enterprise network management requires tools that work together to provide a single, shared model for the collection of management information. WBEM provides this common model and data source, and can be extended to work with existing network components, tools, and protocols.
Figure 2. WBEM standards-based initiative for enterprise network management.
Several years ago, a group of computer companies established the WBEM initiative to develop standards for managing enterprise systems and devices. The goal was to develop a single set of standards for managing any component of an enterprise network. This would ease the problems caused by the existence of many separate standards, such as SNMP for network devices and DMI for desktops. In the future, companies would develop WBEM-compliant hardware, software, and systems that could all be managed in the same way. Thus a single management application could easily manage all the diverse components in an enterprise environment. Eventually the responsibility for the WBEM initiative was assumed by the Desktop Management Task Force (DMTF) organization. The DMTF is responsible for maintaining the standards that will help meet the goals of the WBEM initiative. In summary, WBEM is not browser-based, nor is it a user interface (UI) tool, a data repository, a network management protocol, a component model, or a registry, directory, or file system replacement. WBEM is an initiative that proposes a set of standards for managing the enterprise network, as illustrated in Figure 2. These management standards: Define the structures and conventions necessary to access information about the managed objects. Support centralization of information so that different clients and management tools can provide, retrieve, and analyze data. Support authorized access to managed objects from anywhere in the network so that these objects can be analyzed and manipulated.
Windows Management Instrumentation and CaptureIT
Delayed Obsolescense
One of the major limiting factors of a software products lifespan is accelerated obsolescence. The ever developing nature of the IT systems inevitably means that all software products slowly become less and less usable in the market place. From a users perspective this is bad - why buy a software product when it will be obsolete within two or three years due to changes in the industry? CaptureIT addresses this problem by being based on WMI. By using WMI for its underlying interfaces CaptureIT guarantees that, as other hardware and systems-level software providers develop their products, it will not become obsolete. Indeed, as more and more companies produce WBEM compliant hardware+software CaptureIT will increase in power and usability. Currently (mostly due to the combined efforts of Microsoft, Compaq Computer, BMC Software, Cisco Systems, Intel and others) the vast majority of systems level drivers and hardware are already WBEM compliant. The end user can rest assured that this trend will continue for many years to come.
Security, WMI and CaptureIT
One of the major advantages CaptureIT has over its rivals is security (see What is CaptureIT? for an overview. While a company using one of our rival products has to have a very great (in fact we'd say an unwise) deal of trust of their software suppliers to run an audit, this is not true of CaptureIT. This is because CaptureIT is based upon DCOM and that it uses the WMI service already shipped with all Microsoft operating systems. By using a Microsoft OS you are already trusting Microsoft Corp. anyway, and by using CaptureIT you are not exposing your company to any increase in risk at all. One of the main precepts of secure programming is the "Principal of Least Privelige". This is the idea that any user, process, service or group must be provided the least amount of privelige it needs to do its job and no more. When selecting an auditing system for your company you should be aware of this and choose accordingly, and CaptureIT, as the only non-Microsoft auditing solution that requires no extension of trust at all, stands head and shoulders above the rest.