Hardware represents most of Hewlett-Packard's product
focus, but the company has several software products it needed to
stabilise after the Compaq acquisition was completed.These included its Unix operating systems, its
middleware and the OpenView systems management platform.
The company laid out a roadmap for its
software shortly after the completion of the acquisition. Now it
must execute on its stated intentions, particularly beefing up its
HP-UX operating system with features from Tru64 Unix, continuing to
invest in and develop OpenView and developing its partner approach
toward middleware.
HP's decision to phase out Tru64 Unix, which
it inherited from Compaq, and integrate some of its key features
into its own HP-UX, has been likened to a "a multiple organ
transplant" by long-time DEC/Compaq/HP observer Terry Shannon.
"There are a lot of special things that reside
down within the Tru64 Unix kernel, and HP has cashiered most of the
Tru64 kernel developers. How will they implement this merged
enterprise Unix?" said Shannon, who publishes a specialist
newsletter.
The new version of HP-UX will draw from Tru64
Unix's clustering technology, but otherwise remain fairly close to
older versions, said Mary McDowell, senior vice-president and
general manager for industry standard servers in HP's enterprise
services group.
"HP decided for HP-UX and that was the right
decision, because HP-UX is clearly the market leader compared with
Tru64 Unix," said David Freund, an analyst at Illuminata.
However, he cautions that grafting Tru64
Unix's clustering capabilities and file system into HP-UX may be
more difficult than HP anticipates. HP is on the record as saying
that the first version of HP-UX to feature Tru64 Unix's TruCluster
Server and Advanced File System will be HP-UX 11i version 3, due in
2004. "It remains an open question whether they can hold to that
timeframe," Freund said.
HP does have in its favour that Tru64 Unix
users are "religiously faithful", Freund said. "They bought into
that platform for specific reasons, such as its performance
attributes and clustering capabilities," he said.
Consequently, most of those users have adopted
a wait-and-see attitude for the moment, he said.
To get them to migrate from their Tru64 Unix
Alpha systems to HP-UX servers using Intel's 64-bit Itanium chip,
HP will need to deliver clustering functionality that is equivalent
to what these users have with Tru64 Unix today, not just a subset
of it, Freund warned. Otherwise, HP risks seeing these users bolt
to its competitors, he said.
HP's Linux strategy is also on the minds of
customers, especially in relation to the future of OpenVMS, which
HP has pledged to continue to develop and support along the lines
of a plan sketched out by Compaq before the acquisition.
Many users fear that HP will phase out support
for OpenVMS as it promotes the new HP-UX and Linux as the operating
systems for the remaining Alpha systems and future Itanium
boxes.
HP also plans to port OpenVMS and the
operating system of its NonStop Himalaya servers, called the
NonStop Kernel, over to Itanium.
When it comes to middleware, HP chose to
pursue a partnering strategy rather than develop its own products.
It struck deals with BEA Systems and Oracle to bundle a version of
their Java application servers with HP's systems.
The decision was a U-turn for the company,
which two years earlier had shelled out an estimated $470m (£296m)
to acquire Bluestone Software. That company's products became HP's
Netaction family of middleware.
On the other side, HP strengthened its ties
with Microsoft to offer customers .net software. HP said it emerged
as a "platform neutral" supplier in a world where enterprises want
a mixture of Java and .net products. Some analysts called it a
smart move, others said HP missed a chance to become a leader in
middleware.
"HP needs to continue to sell its story of how
and why its [middleware] partner approach is best" compared to the
strategies of Sun Microsystems and IBM, each of which develops its
own middleware, Illuminata's Freund said.
HP is also positioning its OpenView systems
management platform as its enterprise-level offering and tying
other management tools to it, through integration or links.
"For much of its life, OpenView has been an
afterthought," Freund said. Now it appears HP has made it a higher
priority and made a bigger commitment to it, he said.