HP has outlined its plans to realign its HP OpenView management
tool towards a services-oriented infrastructure software management
model.
At its HP Software Forum in Seattle, USA, this week,
Hewlett-Packard said the emphasis of the software will change,
allowing customers to scale IT operations from an infrastructure
provider to a service provider paradigm.
Patty Azarello, vice-president and general manager of HP's Software
Global Business Unit said the software would focus on managing
processes, software, and hardware based upon service-level
objectives and business needs rather than events.
HP is looking to move OpenView away from the framework model of
system management, said Azarello. "Managing Web services is about
managing and understanding all of the [application and
infrastructure] things that impact that Web service."
"Tivoli and CA [Computer Associates International] are talking, but
a framework concept does not work at all in a Web services
environment, and we see them trying to downplay that, " she
added.
Dennis Drogseth, vice-president for analyst firm Enterprise
Management Associates belives HP holds a distinctive advantage over
CA, IBM/Tivoli, and BMC Software in terms of managing Web
services.
"HP is probably the most mature in moving down this [Web services]
path. It's been re-architecting longer, and addressing
service-level management in various ways longer," said
Drogseth.
Drogseth believes managing Web serices involves an entirely new
approach to IT management. "It [involves a] shift in how management
products will be built and how IT organisations approach
[management] software."
Gartner research director Debra Curtis said HP was using its
management portfolio to heed users' desire for better
communications between IT managers and business managers through
its ServiceDesk integration. This practice would prove paramount
for complex distributed enterprise problem prioritisation and
resolution, she said.
"We need to get IT managers up out of their 'stovepipes' - instead
of managing a particular technology, [they need to look at] the
entire end-to-end process," she said.
Although HP is now pushing Web services management, according to a
new report by research firm IDC, IBM may have the inside track to
produce this new breed of service management solutions. The report
says IBM, backed by its Tivoli software division, is the leader in
the systems operations software industry based upon worldwide
revenue market share.
The IDC report tabulated market share for 2001 in three areas: job
scheduling, output management, and change and configuration
management.
Also, growth forecasts offered through 2006 are included for
Mainframe, Linux, and Windows operating environments and four
global geographical environments. IBM representatives touted IBM's
tight Web services development and WebSphere ties - as well as
considerable financial resources - upon Tivoli products at its
Planet Tivoli end-user conference earlier this month.