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Also at the show, Gateway will unveil its Gateway Systems Management software, the result of a partnership with LANDesk Software Inc. that will give users a single console through which to control their servers, storage, desktops and notebooks, according to Weinbrandt.

The new software will replace Gateway's Server Management software, Weinbrandt said, and will snap into the most popular management software, such as IBM's Tivoli, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s OpenView and BMC Software Inc.'s Patrol.

Link.

I've been wondering quite a bit recently if there's a market for SMB monitoring and management software. The main persona I've had in mind is Kim's dad: he has a real estate office in Pearland, TX with about 5-7 computers along with a website. I'm not sure his computers need 24/7 uptime, but I'm sure he'd be interested in learning when his website was down, when email from clients was backing up, and when his office network was being hacked.

The problem, of course, is that he doesn't want to spend very much money at all to monitor all of that and that the software has to be flawless and simple: he wants to sell real estate, not futz around with monitoring and management suites.

And, of course, the problem with that market is the high chance of getting Microsofted out of it: the next version of Windows could ship just enough of the management features needed, for free, that no one would "upgrade" to your software.

Still, I think there's a complelling story if you somehow graft in the "everything will be a networked device" idea. But, then again, it might be one of those "have your fridge tell you when you need more milk" ideas: fun for geeks, but impracticle and uneeded for customers.