Hewlett-Packard`s sorties in the world of management software have taken its OpenView set of management tools down a very different path than the expected technical management route suggested by OpenView`s predecessor, Network Node Manager.
HP is now creating a "closed loop" management system, delivering interoperability between its previously fragmented operations, services and customer management environments, with the help of XML and other related interoperability standards.
"Integration is like a journey - there`s never a destination," comments Jim Grant, GM of OpenView operations and marketing. He adds that OpenView is "one of the most integrated management systems on the market".
Integration between OpenView`s vast set of products has always been a sticking point for the management suite, especially due to much of its growth attributed to acquisition. Another hurdle has been lack of a standard look-and-feel throughout the product line, also attributed to the blazing acquisition trail.
The company seems determined to bring its diverse software management stable back into line, which could be due to its mission throughout the company to "reinvent" itself and get all of its various heads and feet pointing in the same "e-services" direction.
Bill Russel, VP software and solutions, says: "We are changing our software strategy to support e-services. [The e-service strategy] is the first time we have had a single strategy, and it has impacted every division of HP."
Russel says HP has even committed to divest its interests in seven software business units over the next year, while increasing investment in OpenView and other key software areas.
The acquisition of Bluestone is seen as one of the steps towards integration. Bluestone brings middleware into the product line, and puts OpenView in competition with the likes of IBM and BEA`s middleware Internet software management platforms.
Another route the company is taking is support of interoperability standards like XML, XAML and UDDI (a transactional standard developed by Microsoft, Ariba and IBM). This could see HP`s own e-Speak taking a back-seat, as the company`s vision points towards the "distributed" e-business model - where your partners (and their IT systems) are extensions of your own infrastructure (commonly referred to as the extraprise).
Both HP and its partners (including Microsoft) are talking about the post-e-business wave of extraprise and e-services, connecting to your partners as though they are part of your organisation, and running a virtual business without any real-world assets at all.
To achieve this, these various e-service business partners need integrated systems. And to achieve an integrated system, HP has to deliver a tightly integrated management suite - integration between individual management products, and real-world business units, too.
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