HP Adds Utility to OpenView

Hewlett-Packard on Monday unveiled network management software developed from tools it acquired when it bought Novadigm and Consera Software earlier this year.

OpenView Automation Manager is part of HP’s plan to build a set of individually available components as a replacement for the unwieldy Utility Data Center, which HP discontinued in September.

Separate Pieces Are Better

“I think HP’s unbundling UDC was good,” Thomas Reinsel, CEO of Pepperweed Consulting, which develops and deploys IT solutions, told CRM Buyer.

“Prior to this they were trying to bake up a big cake. They were trying to offer everything as one big solution. Most customers don’t like that. We’ve always been a big fan of component-based software. Not everyone needs everything.”

Automation Manager adjusts to the peaks and valleys of applications, servers, storage and networks in an IT infrastructure to smooth the load. Research from HP Labs contributed business intelligence software to the project.

UDC, which required companies to buy a package of hardware, software and services, cost at least $1 million to implement.

“There were parts [of UDC] that were of value, but you couldn’t buy the parts,” Reinsel said.

First for Windows

OpenView Automation Manager will have a base price of about $1,000 per server. It will begin shipping in January, first for Windows and Linux and then for HP-UX.

Computer Associates and IBM’s Tivoli Software unit also offer management tools capable of the functions of HP’s automation manager.

HP said the software uses “model-based automation,” which means that it allows the IT staff to model a process and automate it instead of having to build the automation from scripts. That makes the process more intuitive and flexible.

“Ultimately if we can draw a picture of the infrastructure and applications we want and we can click build, that would be the holy grail. This is a step in that direction,” he said.

The company also released version 5 of both OpenView Service Desk and OpenView Service Level Manager 0 at HP Software Universe in Madrid. The new service desk contains a Web-based GUI, standard reports, a graphical service level agreement template and will ship in mid-2005. The latest Service Level Manager offers new tools for measuring compliance.