The network management space saw a number of new and interesting product releases this week, including ones from ManageEngine (News - Alert), Compuware, F5 Networks and NetScout Systems.

First, ManageEngine announced the addition of an enterprise search tool to its IT360 10.0 IT management tool, along with a slew of other new features. The search tool is designed for deep queries against a range of business apps and IT management databases.

“Enterprise search helps IT teams take fast, informed action by providing a unified search console to search for any asset or keyword across third-party vendors' applications - without requiring users to program SQL queries or understand database schemas or structures,” the company said.

Later, we learned about Compuware’s new application performance monitoring capabilities. Compuware APM seeks to provide IT managers with deep insight into network and application performance and how they relate. The release also includes extended SAP (News - Alert) analysis capabilities, offering a detailed picture of how application and infrastructure issues are impacting user performance.

Steve Tack, VP of Product Management for Compuware's APM (News - Alert) business unit, said, "By highlighting the relationship between application and network performance, we provide our customers with visibility into how the network contributes to the overall user experience. IT teams can now proactively address issues well before they become business problems."

Also this week, F5 Networks (News - Alert) unveiled enhanced firewall security and management solutions. The company will now offer S/Gi firewall with its BIG-IP Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM), a full-proxy network firewall that can be deployed as a hardware or software-based solution to deliver unparalleled scalability and performance for service providers. Management of the firewall has been redesigned for simplicity and cross-device compatibility, as well.

Finally, NetScout (News - Alert) Systems revealed its nGeniusONE unified performance management system this week. Unified under a single platform, the nGeniusONE is designed to simplify management of networks, applications, servers, and other services, particularly for those companies with distinct IT departments.

Steven Shalita, vice president of marketing at NetScout, said, “Our delivery of a completely new analysis architecture coupled with the significant advances in our ASI technology radically simplifies service delivery management, enabling faster, more effective triage, and empowers IT operations teams to more effectively collaborate on managing application delivery in a service context to optimize performance, availability and protect the user experience.”