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BMC Software Inc. caught up with its major rivals in enterprise management last week, delivering a pair of new Windows- and Web-based consoles for its Patrol 7. But that parity will be fleeting as IBMs Tivoli unit and Computer Associates International Inc. ready updated products of their own.
The native Windows and Web consoles, along with a new distribution server intended to streamline deployment of BMC tools, are the final pieces of the Patrol 7 suite, which the Houston company redesigned last year into a more modular management family.
Patrol Central Operator-Microsoft Windows Edition and its Web counterpart, Patrol Central Operator-Web Edition, provide a centralized view of applications, databases and operating systems.
The 32-bit Windows console provides a look and feel that is more consistent with Windows than its predecessor, a version ported from the Unix-based Patrol console. It integrates with other Windows applications and can share data with the Web-based console, which allows operators to make changes and execute functions, as well as view the status of monitored systems.
While that brings BMC on a par with the Windows- and Web-based consoles offered in rival management software from Tivoli and CA, those vendors are planning upgrades for later this year.
“We will deliver a management portal in June that will allow you to integrate and incorporate all management tools and launch them in context,” said Bob Madey, vice president of performance and availability products at Tivoli, in Austin, Texas.
Tivoli Management Portal will be customizable, and users can delegate security rights to access functions. It will be a free feature in all Tivoli monitoring products, Madey said.
CA, for its part, expects to release a beta of its Unicenter Management Portal Version 3 by July, according to David Hochhauser, vice president of Unicenter brand management, in Islandia, N.Y.
Hewlett-Packard Co.s OpenView Web console is currently read-only, although it was updated in November with new patent-pending visualization technology for Microsoft Corp.s Active Directory.