MetiLinx Inc. along with new partner Digital Evolution Inc. on Monday will jump into the Web services management void with a new tool that applies utility computing concepts to Web services applications.
The MetiLinx/Digital Evolution Adaptive Web Services Management tool, which will debut at Hewlett-Packard Co.s HP World users conference next week, is one of the first Web services management offerings to exploit a services-oriented architecture.
MetiLinx brings to the table the ability to correlate and analyze hundreds of performance parameters on a node—which can be a server, partition or domain—combined with the ability to virtualize the nodes it is watching in real-time to create new systems, partitions or groups of nodes that make up a function or service, according to Larry Ketchersid, executive director of service and support for the San Mateo, Calif.-based MetiLinx. The pair married that ability with Digital Evolutions advanced UDDI directory, dubbed The Registry, which maintains all location data, sizing and performance data for Web services.
The benefit such a marriage brings to Web services operators is more effective service-level-agreement (SLA) management, faster troubleshooting of bottlenecks affecting specific transactions, the ability to meet fluctuating services capacity requirements on demand, and improved transaction response times through services load balancing.
“If you have a Web service that does tax transactions, and you decide you need three (instances) of those and two servers, we can abstract utilization of all three into one measurement and measure it against an SLA. If we go below a (specified performance) threshold, we go into The Registry, and based on our knowledge of both utilizations, we decide if we need to get another server and put it on, or get a new partition, or we could add another copy of the Web service if theres server capacity left over,” described Ketchersid.
MetiLinx officials also believe the combined offering is unique in being able to provide billing based on the correlation of service-level data and the IT assets that are consumed by the Web service. “We can track usage, tie it back to a TCP user and send that information to a billing system or to HPs IUM mediation system,” said Ketchersid.
The MetiLinx/Digital Evolution Adaptive Web Services Management offering, made up of MetiLinx iSystem Enterprise 3.1 and Digital Evolutions Management Server 2.1.5, works with both .Net and J2EE Web services applications.
The combined offering is integrated with the HP OpenView Operations management tool, allowing OpenView users to manage Web services from their enterprise management console.
The new offering, available next week, costs about $150,000 for a typical installation. It will be available from both MetiLinx and Digital Evolution, of Santa Monica, Calif.