Hewlett-Packard Co’s inexorable slide towards NT continues apace. This week, the company demonstrates first fruits of a deal it chiseled out with Microsoft Corp to ship its OpenView network management with Microsoft’s Systems Management Server. The project will integrate next version offerings of OpenView IT/Operations and OpenView IT/Administration – due in the spring of 1997 – with Systems Management Server, enabling OpenView to recognize distributed systems managed by the Server as OpenView nodes. Hewlett-Packard plans to deliver OpenView agents and templates for installation with the Server while Microsoft will ship the OpenView agents with the next release of Systems Management Server. Hewlett-Packard gets responsibility for licensing and supporting technology. The two are expected to make much of the mixed Windows NT and Unix capabilities. Hewlett-Packard’s IT/Operations is, in effect, an expansion of the company’s OpenView OperationsCenter systems management product, which has been combined with the HP OpenView Network Node Manager. The combined system is said to provide features including views of the entire computing environment – including network infrastructure; combined network- and systems-management tools; enhanced problem management; advanced allocation of operator responsibilities; simplified assignment of responsibilities in distributed environments and greater management of large heterogeneous environments. IT/Administration is a combination of the OpenView AdminCenter and the OpenView Network Node Manager. In the meantime, Microsoft has pledged its future 64-bit NT for Merced – the next generation Intel Corp-Hewlett-Packard Co line of 64-bit chips – due sometime in 1998.
