The worlds of network and systems management are drawing inexorably closer. Following the likes of Computer Associates International Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, Sun Microsystems Inc, Microsoft Corp, Tivoli Systems Inc and IBM Corp down that path, Rochester, New Hampshire-based hub and router company Cabletron Systems Inc has pulled in 13 partners, with a total of 14 applications, to provide much-needed systems management to its Spectrum network management environment. For Cabletron, the initiative is designed to be the trump card in its battle to win over customers of the soon-to-be-wed 3Com Corp and Chipcom Corp. The company cites the lack of a unified network management framework as a major reason why users should not pick 3Com and Chipcom kit once the acquisition of Chipcom by 3Com has gone through. Instead, Cabletron’s idea is that users can mix and match whichever of these suits their needs, providing everything from simple element management for small local networks, to a fully robust control centre for large enterprises. The company has opened up its application programming interfaces so that its partners’ applications are integrated at either the alarms and events level, where alarms and events from those applications are passed to Spectrum.
Knowledge base
Or they can be integrated at the knowledge base stage, where objects created by end-users or developers for use with these applications reside alongside Spectrum objects in the company’s repository where they are then subject to Spectrum management policies. First stage integration is at the interface. All will be available for use with Spectrum by the end of the first quarter of next year. Spectrum currently distributes management tasks across Unix servers – a Windows NT implementation is promised by year-end. So-called ‘full-service’ management support applications for use with Spectrum will be available from Computer Associates, Tivoli and OpenVision Inc. For network operating systems there is Spectrum management gateway server for NetWare, a Spectrum Banyan Systems Inc Vines file server management module plus LANalert from Seagate Technology Inc’s Los Altos, California-based NetLabs Inc unit for domain management of NetWare networks. This autumn, Cabletron is planning to release a Management Gateway Server for Novell Inc NetWare, complementing its existing offering for the Banyan Vines environment. The NetWare Management Gateway Server is designed to provide options for managing server functions including file management, fault and error management, user a ccount management, and file server resource management. Cabletron claims that the system will be unique in that it does not require users to load NetWare Loadable Modules. A Host Services Management Information Base application within Spectrum’s Host and Workstation Management Modules is designed to exploit and build on Spectrum’s distributed modelling for a wide range of Unix and NT computer systems.
By William Fellows
Gradient Technologies Inc is offering its licence server management module, Compuware Corp’s EcoTools will provide fault and performance management of applications, databases and servers across major Unix systems, Metrix SA’s its WinWatch Simple Network Management Protocol agent and Software Professionals Inc Enlighten/Events for administration system. Cabletron has its own workstation management modules and SNA management modules. For print management there is an application from Dublin company Syllogic Ireland Ltd. Database support comes from Oracle Corp’s management module and CompuWare’s EcoTools. Other integration will be available with SAP AG’s R/3 – from Intelligent Communications Software GmbH – Empire Technologies and for BGS Systems Inc. Cabletron is especially pleased that Calypso Software Inc, Manchester, New Hampshire, has a version of its MaestroVision, called Atrium EMS, for use with Spectrum from next month. The product is said to exploit Spectrum’s modelling and database capabilities to provide automated diagnosis and resolution of
problems through the use of intelligent agents. Software distribution; policy-based management (enabling administrators to set guidelines for everything from managing computing environments to end-user resource allocation); and a standards-based tool kit are all included, said Calypso. The company will put Atrium EMS up on other management systems and plans a stand-alone version too. Cabletron claims the four years in the making Spectrum is the only truly distributed object-oriented management environment available. In future versions of the software, it plans to incorporate technology from NetLabs, presumably the company’s event correlation module that Sun and Hewlett-Packard have already adopted for their respective products.
Trade in
None of the applications are being packaged with Spectrum, although the company doesn’t rule out integrated offerings further down the line. It is currently offering Spectrum free to users that trade in Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Sun network management environments, though it isn’t saying how many have jumped since the promotion began. International Data Corp’s 1994 numbers have Cabletron rising to third spot in the Simple Network Management Protocol enterprise management system table with a 13.5% share, behind Sun’s 29.3% and Hewlett-Packard’s 28.4%, but ahead of IBM’s NetView with 9.9%, Network Managers Ltd at 4.6%, and others at 14.4%. The market researcher doesn’t count OpenView for Windows or Novell NMS in its enterprise standings. Spectrum grew out of a robust management system Cabletron had developed to support its router and hub technologies. Its key technological advantage – which for some reason it seems to hide from public view – is apparently the ability to have multiple interfaces to the same database, functionality IBM and Computer Associates with Sun haven’t yet delivered. Spectrum is said to be strong in European markets, especially sites that have no Cabletron hardware. If its strength is its technology, the company’s weakness is surely its mark eting.
