HP readies management offering for Cisco environments
Hewlett-Packard is preparing to give its HP OpenView network management offerings a shot in the arm, using the NetWorld+Interop conference to quietly field test a service management solution not expected to be made available until mid to late summer.
Smart Service Management of Cisco Environments 2001 is the latest Cisco-focused product to emerge from the network management division of Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP.
The product is designed to analyze the business impact of equipment failures in the network. Billed as a superset of HP OpenView Network Node Manager, the product gives network managers a "service-oriented view" of the network, according to HP.
The company reports that by integrating HP OpenView with CiscoWorks 2000, network managers manage and configure Cisco equipment and gain a "service view" of the total environment.
According to Rosemary Chiovari, HP's Cupertino, Calif-based Cisco Alliance marketing manager, the product is particularly useful in analyzing how enterprise applications such as SAP & PeopleSoft are affected by a network failure, giving management a clearer idea of the overall business impact.
The product also features a graphical service level view of the environment, automatic discovery and fault monitoring of Cisco network elements, end to end network path analysis, event correlation, and integration with CiscoWorks 2000, according to HP.
Chiovari said the current economic climate has seen network management assume a new importance. "People are starting to look for better ways to manage the network," she said.
Chiovari said Smart Service Management of Cisco Environments 2001 is expected to be formally launched in a month and will be generally available by the end of summer. Pricing has not yet been released.
Meanwhile, according to consulting firm KPMG, network management initiatives are becoming commonplace across enterprises.
David Vogeler, senior mananger at the South Park, Penn.-based firm, said much of this interest is focused on managing the complexity of enterprise networks.
"At some point it becomes so complex you need to find new ways to manage it," he said.
» posted by ITworld staff
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