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Apr 14 2008   9:45PM GMT

Mapping HP Software to the Data Center Automation Blueprint



Posted by: Ryan Shopp
Analytics, CMDB, DataCenter, DCAB, GridApp Systems, HP Software, Integrien, Netuitive

I had the chance to recently chat with an executive at HP to breakdown what pieces and parts ended up where post Peregrine, Mercury and Opsware acquisitions. Here is my attempted and mapping them to the Data Center Automation Blueprint.

  • Configuration & Change
    • for networks – Network Automation Software (formerly Opsware, formerly Rendition)
    • for servers – Server Automation Software (formerly Opsware)
    • for storage – Storage Essentials Software (formerly Appilog)
  • Resource Reconciliation
    • Universal CMDB software (formerly Mercury, formerly AppLogic)
  • Process Orchestration – Operations Orchestration Software (formerly Opsware, formerly iConclude)

The focus of our call was around the above areas…from here I’m trying to piece together by using the website and the knowledge that:

  • The Business Service Management group is where all the monitoring products reside; Mercury (excluding QA products) and original OpenView monitoring products. There still seems like a ton of overlap here…
  • The IT Service Management is where Peregrine and the original HP Service Desk products reside.

So that means for the other functional areas of the Data Center Automation Blueprint we have:

  • Analytics
    • HP Dashboard software & HP Business Service Level Management – each offers a unified user interface consolidating reports and statistics spanning multiple other product lines within Performance & Availability to IT Service Desks.
  • Performance & Availability
    • Products that are event/availability centric for the Data Center Infrastructure
      • HP Network Node Manager software – agent-less performance and availability software for networks
      • HP Operations Manager software – agent-based performance and availability software for servers/services/applications/databases.
      • HP Problem Isolation software – agent-less performance and availability software for servers/services/application/databases.
      • HP Process Monitor software & HP TransactionVision software – agent-based performance and availability software for services/applications/databases
    • Products that are trend/capacity centric for the Data Center Infrastructure
      • HP Performance Insight software – agent-less time series performance and capacity reporting software for networks that also consolidates data for reporting on servers/services/applications/databases
      • HP SiteScope software – agent-less performance and availability software for servers/services/applications/databases
      • HP Performance Manager software & HP GlancePlus software – agent-based time series performance & capacity statistics collected from servers/services/applications/databases.l
      • HP Real-User Monitor software – monitors applications/services/data traffic flows
  • Security & Prevention
    • HP WebInspect software – web application vulnerability scanning
      • **NOTE: In my eyes, this is more a security extension to the QA and Testing products from Mercury then part of a security & prevention software portfolio like that of Symantec, McAfee or EMC RSA.

So there we have it (i think). Now please correct me if I’m wrong, but one thing I didn’t see in the portfolio was anything that does proactive performance analytics like Integrien, Netuitive or ProactiveNet (acquired by BMC)? Besides that, from an outside perspective they merely have a very confusing Performance & Availability functional category (due to Mercury/OpenView overlap) that does seem to have all the pieces. So for HP Software, it’s just about executing and tying things together based on end-to-end use cases from their customers. One other area to keep an eye on is Configuration & Change for databases (from companies like GridApp). As more and more enteprises deploy the Server Automation Software, they may start wanting to get more detailed in the world of databases, if so that may be a build/buy decision point to consider in the future. One other thing based on what I’ve read is all these products are busy making sure they extend beyond physical systems support into the virtualized world.

I guess one outstanding thing to ponder is why shouldn’t HP also offer a comprehensive security & prevention offering to help them better compete against IBM? At some point many people assume/expect security and operations to converge, why not help drive that with a comprehensive security offering?

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Shenning  |   Apr 18, 2008  10:01 PM (GMT)

No question that HP’s portfolio is lacking a proactive performance analytics solution as you mention, Ryan. However, IBM is in the same boat (their Tivoli Performance Analyzer is more of an capacity planning tool than a real time proactive analytics solution) as is CA. Of course, as we have been discussing, the increasing complexity and size of IT infrastructures has driven real-time analytics solutions to “must have” status. I’m sure we’ll see HP, IBM and CA compelled to address this hole in their portfolios…

Since you mentioned Integrien in the company of others, I’d also like to differentiate our solution, Integrien Alive, from Netuitive and BMC/ProactiveNet. While these solutions have an ability to learn the normal behavior of IT infrastructure components (with varying levels of algorithmic sophistication – but lets leave that alone for the time being), Integrien Alive additionally takes a problem-focused approach to proactive alerting. Integrien Alive is the only solution available that can automatically model IT problems based on business performance, user experience, or even IT infrastructure key indicators being breached. These models pinpoint the causes of IT problems that impact the business (e.g., application server tier, database tier) [I]in the context[/I] of the problem itself. This speeds MTTI/MTTR and eliminates costly bridge calls. Now, once one of these models (or “Problem Fingerprints”) has been captured, we can predict re-occurences of that problem. This is a huge differentiator and much different behavior than other tools, which simply look at the percentage of abnormal behaviors evident and send “proactive” alerts when a certain threshold is breached. While this is somewhat better than static-threshold based monitoring, it certainly isn’t optimal and provides no real context for the alert. A high amount of abnormal behavior may or may not actually be a problem. Having a problem focused approach rather than a utilization focused approach is an absolute necessity.


 

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