While Microsoft’s products have become a standard both at home and in the workplace, Bill Gates knows he needs to keep coming up with fresh ideas to stay on top.
Today at the Intel Exchange conference, Gates announced a new Microsoft management solution called Microsoft Operations Manager.
The solution features a series of standards-based management interfaces called .NET Management Services, and a partner program called the Microsoft Management Alliance.
“In today’s enterprise, customers need an environment that is predictable, reliable and cost-effective,” said Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corp. “Microsoft’s software, services and industry partners will provide customers with the most advanced management technologies for their businesses, and deliver solutions that take full advantage of the next generation of Internet computing.”
To deliver this operations management solution, Microsoft has licensed NetIQ Operations Manager, a solution built on Windows-based services. While officials at Microsoft seem to feel that the product already has a robust offering, the Company plans to enhance the product’s support for Windows 2000 and .NET Enterprise Servers.
“Microsoft is serious about addressing the management problems of our customers and industry partners,” said Jim Ewel, vice president of Windows.NET Server Marketing at Microsoft Corp. “By providing an operations management product to complement Systems Management Server, a set of .NET Management Services for industry partners to build on, and a partner program that allows for easier development of management solutions, we are evolving Windows into the premier management platform for the enterprise.”
Microsoft will offer their new operations management product in 2001, focused on the event and performance management of Windows 2000 Server and the .NET Enterprise Servers.
While Microsoft continues to develop its operations management product and offer enhanced support for Microsoft products, NetIQ will develop a range of heterogeneous and value-add solutions, including support for non-Microsoft applications and non-Windows environments.
The .NET Management Services will allow management solutions to work together easily by writing to industry standards such CIM and XML, without the need to integrate with proprietary frameworks.
In addition the Microsoft Management Alliance will provide developers and ISVs with development and marketing resources to assist in building applications on top of the .NET Management Services, thus providing customers with premier products that work effectively with Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
According to company officials, management ISVs are a critical part of Microsoft’s strategy of making Windows the first choice for management.
