HP Fills Out OpenView Management Suite

HP has added perks to its OpenView Application
Management suite to make application development and IT operations more
efficient and cost-effective.

Company officials said HP completed the enhancements to address the idea
that three quarters of software ownership costs are racked up in the
creation and maintenance of applications. By adding management features to
the application management segment of the OpenView platform sooner in the
lifecycle, the vendor aims to help customers lower their ownership expenses.

For example, when an application is built and deployed, management software
is used to monitor that application once it goes into production. But
customers are realizing management needs to begin sooner in the application
lifecycle to be more beneficial and cost-effective, according to Jon Atkins,
Solution Marketing Manager.

“IT has finite resources. They have $100 to spend and they have to spend
that in the best place,” said Atkins. “Right now, they’re spending quite a
bit of that $100 on tedious maintenance tasks that can be automated, such as
isolating an application problem so that it can be fixed faster. CIOs have
an opportunity to shift money and resources into innovation.”

Atkins said new the new tools will help customers of Microsoft .NET,
COM/COM+ and J2EE application platforms, operating systems and
databases manage their software from the network and infrastructure layers,
up to the application.

New and enhanced tools of the HP OpenView Application Management portfolio
include: JMX Metric Builder, which plugs into BEA WebLogic Workshop to
instrument applications for Java Management Extensions (JMX); Select
Identity application connectors to create and update user accounts; Radia
Application templates for rapid deployment of J2EE, Web servers and database
servers; and Internet Services 6.0, which boasts a new graphical user
interface (GUI) and troubleshooting packs.

The Palo Alto, Calif., company also created or updated plug-ins for a number
of software packages, including BEA WebLogic Integration, Tuxedo Microsoft
Exchange, Microsoft Virtual Server, Microsoft Enterprise Server, SAP
NetWeaver, Unix OS, Web Server and Remedy. Also, Transaction Analyzer 3.0
now covers .NET CLR and SOAP monitoring and WebLogic Portal 8 portlets.

Atkins also said change configuration management from its acquisition of
Novadigm and identity management from its SelectAccess buy have been added
to provision infrastructure and user permission.

Ideally, such tools will help HP better compete for market share versus
fellow management software rivals Computer Associates , IBM
, BMC and Compuware. Analysts, which regard
the management software space as broad and sweeping, say the space has a
multi-billion-dollar market potential.