GridApp Systems

Mapping HP Software to the Data Center Automation Blueprint

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?

Digging into the DCAB 6’s functional areas: Process Orchestration

Alright, back on track with our review of the 6 functional DCAB areas. We are now onto the hottest, fastest growth areas! First up, Process Orchestration or what Gartner has coined as Run Book Automation?

These products offer the ability to define, build, orchestrate, manage, monitor and report on workflows that automate specific IT intra or inter domain processes (intra = between different products for the Windows Server team or inter = between the application and network team). There are a ton of case studies and examples on most the players websites.

A couple quick examples to get a flavor include:

A monitoring product identifies a specific condition (e.g., an outage), it then checks a configuration auditing product to see if a recent change was performed for that system.

A configuration auditing product monitoring if a device is in or out of compliance notices an situation and then automatically opens a trouble ticket. Later, it notices again the situation has been resolved and it adds the appropriate details to the ticket and automatically closes it out.

Here are the companies I know about (as always, in alphabetical order)

BMC (formerly RealOps)
Enigmatec
GridApp
HP (formerly Opsware, formerly iConclude)
IBM (formerly ThinkDynamics)
LANDesk (Process Manager product)
NetIQ (Aegis product)
OpTier
Opalis
Optinuity
Scapa Technologies
Stratavia
UC4 Software
xTigo

As always, who am I missing. What are the opinions out there from users or evaluators for each platform (please chime in down in the comments section). I have personal product exposure and experience with only BMC, Stratavia. Some of the key features that I learned from those products included the value of having a normalized, common data model and “action” abstraction capabilities so you re-use previous process actions in new workflows.

Here are a couple good reviews and write-ups for further reading if desired.

Data Center Manager Primed for IT Process Automation
IT Process Automaton Overview and review of some players