IBM System User, a sister publication looks at systems management companies that are keen to exploit the market for Internet-related software.
Traditional systems management software companies are getting used to having to adapt to new markets. Companies such as BMC and Candle originally built their businesses around systems management software for mainframe environments. But as users shifted to distributed computing, these companies found themselves facing a shrinking market. Their answer was to take their mainframe-based systems management experience and to adapt it for heterogeneous, distributed systems. Now, these companies are going one step further – producing management suites that encompass the Internet and intranet systems. The impetus for such a move is clear. According to analysts, systems management companies which incorporate support for these Internet/intranet environments are set to benefit from one of the largest markets to develop from the popularity of Internet technology. Internet and corporate intranets have added a layer of complexity to the problem of managing distributed computing environments. Management companies see a potentially huge opportunity. Two years ago customers never even considered the Internet and now they want systems management for their Internet/intranet servers, says Aubrery Chernik, chairman at Candle. According to Chernik, companies that have set up Web sites and intranets are already facing problems managing them. If it is problematic, if it is messy we want to be involved. We look for that pain, he says. Chernik maintains that, as the Internet becomes an integral part of corporate computing, Internet-based systems management will become essential. Systems are becoming more complex as the Internet is becoming a business-to- business-operation, he says. Look at the problems faced by America Offline when their systems went down. In the next few years, there is going to be a lot of Internet systems crashing. Candle is not the only company looking at Internet/intranet systems as a valuable market opportunity. In December last year, Computer Associate s released its Unicenter Internet Commerce Enabled software. As well as providing an environment for secure business transactions to take place over the Internet, the product also includes functions to aid management of an Internet/intranet environm ent. These include capabilities such as software distribution, administration and configuration management. IBM subsidiary, Tivoli, has also developed Internet/intranet-specific products. The first, the Tivoli/ net.Commander module, was launched in February. This allows users to manage the deployment of Web servers and the configuration of intranet applications and services. Tivoli is also developing net.TME for the performance optimization and load balancing of Web servers. BMC Software, whic h, like Candle, built its business in the IBM mainframe systems management market, has also launched an Internet/intranet-enabled product. Knowledge Module for Internet Servers enables systems administrators to manage their corporate intranets eithe r through BMC’s graphical user interface (the Patrol Console) or through a Netscape Navigator Web browser. BMC’s Knowledge Module is part of the company’s family of Patrol management tools which also includes a Web-browser console (PatrolWatch) whic h enables activities being monitored and managed by its Patrol management suite to be viewed using a Web browser. According to BMC, although Internet projects start out as small investments needing little management, this soon changes. Most Web sites started out as a trial project to provide customers with access to information. They have now become mainstream and many users now see their Internet sites as mission-critical, says Tim Young, European product director at BMC Software. He mainta ins that Web sites such as the one run by Federal Express – which enables customers to track the location of their packages via a Web page – have become high profile systems that can give a company a competitive advantage. As this elevates the statu s of the Web site, so maintaining and managing these systems becomes essential. Internet systems management will certainly be a significant growth area over the next 12 months, says Young. Although increasingly necessary, systems management for Internet/intranet applications may not, however, be the complex issue that many vendors claim. It’s exactly the same problems as any other systems management system – efficient use of resources, maintaining availability and balancing users. It is quite a simple concept.
