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Hewlett-Packard Co. this week will introduce an architecture for its OpenView management platform that it expects will appeal to service providers by making OpenView tools more modular.
By making the tools more modular, HP is setting the stage for a more open type of management in which a single, proprietary management application can be integrated with new services from multiple vendors, according to sources who have been briefed on HPs plans.
The OpenView architecture, which will be unveiled at the OpenView conference in New Orleans this week, is based on Tibco Software Inc.s publish-and-subscribe message bus. HP, of Palo Alto, Calif., will migrate the OpenView management tools over time to the Tibco message bus, which HP licensed in an alliance announced in April.
The bus will allow the management functions in those tools to be delivered as Web services on a subscription basis. HP will migrate its individual point tools to the message bus architecture by creating adapters for each, sources said.
The OpenView architecture, which will focus on service creation, delivery, assurance and usage, moves the OpenView unit beyond its product and “stovepipe” orientation, said Rich Pitak, an analyst at Hurwitz Group Inc., in Framingham, Mass. “They are working to verticalize their solution so that all the pieces work together to resolve an identifiable business problem,” Pitak said.
As a part of its initiative, the OpenView unit will drop the VantagePoint moniker from its systems management offering. It will be replaced with Operations Manager, sources said.
HP officials declined to comment on unannounced products.
Kirby Vaughan, a systems integrator and longtime OpenView user, applauded HPs move. “They developed OpenView, then cobbled on the ability to distribute stuff. Now theyre going back and using a logical, well-thought-out way of distributing things,” said Vaughan, vice president of technology services at Southernview Technologies Inc., in Atlanta.
The improved scalability should be attractive to service providers, Vaughn said. “Being able to address multiple private networks is something it doesnt handle well right now,” he said.
HP is not the first management software provider to make such a move, but its the first large player to do so. San Francisco-based RiverSoft Technologies Ltd., an HP partner, has already integrated the Tibco message bus into its Network Management Operating System.
