Network management is seen as a fast-growth sector over the next three or four years, and the leading contenders seem to be proprietary systems from IBM and DEC, attempts by AT&T Co and by Hewlett-Packard Co and partners to come up with open systems, Cincom Systems’ Net/Master, which does not on its own meet all the requirements, but has been adopted by AT&T as part of its offering, while a Network Management Forum is trying to lay down the rules for an open system. Yesterday, Unisys Corp formally dumped its own effort and joined AT&T camp, signing to take AT&T’s Accumaster Integrator integrated network management system in the US and negotiating for the international market. Unisys and AT&T are founding members of the Open Systems Interconnection Network Management Forum, and the agreement will enable Unisys to offer Open Systems-based management integration for its networking and communications products. The Accumaster Integrator is designed to give network management personnel a graphic view and centralised control of a data and voice network via a windowed workstation screen.
