 Network/Systems ManagementThis newsletter is sponsored by Packet DesignNetwork World's Network/Systems Management Newsletter, 06/06/07A look at the big four, Part 2By Denise DubieThe big four management vendors have been occupying their seats for quite some time but that doesn't mean they haven't undergone major changes in the process. BMC overhauled its market position with its business service management (BSM) strategy and CA revamped first the new company with a executive management refresh and then its product portfolio by focusing on Enterprise IT Management. But for fellow big four vendors, HP and IBM the landscape is a bit different. For instance, when talking about the big four management vendors, discussions often fall into two camps: BMC and CA, which provide platform-agnostic IT management software; and HP and IBM, which also promise the same neutral management wares, but the two vendors also separately sell servers, storage, virtualization, service-oriented architecture and other products -- oftentimes making talk of their management portfolios secondary.
Take HP. Its OpenView products (now under the umbrella of HP Software since HP completed its $4.5 billion Mercury Interactive acquisition last year) have long been hailed as having the largest installed base of customers worldwide. (I personally haven't seen market share numbers recently making this absolute truth, but when I write about HP software, I inevitably get many e-mails asking about what's new in Network Node Manager.) Yet as popular as OpenView is, the vendor has been criticized for not making it more critical to its business -- until recently. "A few years ago, as HP OpenView became a profitable proposition within HP for the first time, it embarked on two major acquisitions that redefined the IT management software landscape," Forrester's SWOT analysis of HP reads. "HP Software -- the combination of OpenView and Mercury -- seems to be ideally suited to providing a strong next generation of service-oriented solutions, combining Mercury's strength in life-cycle management, CMDB and application mapping with OpenView's data acquisition abilities." Add to that HP's acquisition of Peregrine Systems, and the vendor should be able to take the IT management market by storm. Yet Forrester suggests HP could face challenges in uniting its sales force with Mercury's as well as aligning its software business unit with others at the company. "Once HP has combined the software sales forces of HP and Mercury, it must transfer new momentum to and through the traditional HP enterprise sales force -- which has not always treated the software side in such a strategic manner," the report reads. As for IBM and its Tivoli management software group, Big Blue is focused on delivery IT management products as "end-to-end services rather than stacks of independent components," Forrester says. And in the past couple of years, it has built out its IT service management portfolio with many acquisitions -- which can be considered both good and bad. "[IBM] now covers everything from operational management products, such as monitoring provisioning and release management across all computing platforms to process management tools that provide automation and workflow," the report reads. But at the same time, the many IT management acquisitions IBM made in 2006 alone muddy the waters a bit for customers trying to determine what exactly the vendor offers and how customers can go about getting it in their shops. Also despite covering all its bases, Forrester says Big Blue needs to keep its products modular and interoperable with other vendors' wares. "Clients want the breadth and depth, the modularity, and the bigger picture; however, they also want to be able to digest and understand it. IBM needs to continuously stress its modularity, logical integration, and people-process-technology approach, without falling back on the previous approach of selling a framework," the SWOT analysis reads.
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| Contact the author: Senior Editor Denise Dubie covers the technologies, products and services that address network, systems, application and IT service management for Network World. E-mail Denise. This newsletter is sponsored by Packet DesignARCHIVEArchive of the Network/Systems Management Newsletter. BONUS FEATUREIT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESTo subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007  |
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