The amazing thing I will say about the HP Software portfolio is it has pulled together a great set of formerly standalone vendors (e.g., Mercury, Opsware, Peregrine and legacy OpenView line) to offer comprehensive coverage for automating and managing your entire IT infrastructure. Their capabilities go well beyond the Data Center.

• Configuration & Change
  • for networks – Network Automation Software (formerly Opsware, formerly Rendition)
  • for servers, applications & databases – Server Automation Software (formerly Opsware)
  • for storage – Storage Essentials Software (formerly AppIQ)
• Performance & Availability
  • Products that are Availability (event) centric for the Data Center Infrastructure
    • for networks – HP Network Node Manager software – agent-less approach
    • for servers, applications & databases
      • HP Operations Manager software – agent-based approach
      • HP SiteScope software – agent-less
      • (NOTE:  agent-based requires a proprietary agent to be installed on a system, agent-less leverages either industry standard or de-facto standard protocols or embedded management agents)
    • for applications – HP TransactionVision software – agent-based performance and availability software for services/applications/databases
  • Products that are Performance & Capacity (periodic time-series collected data) centric for the Data Center Infrastructure
    • for networks – HP Performance Insight software – agent-less approach
    • for servers, applications & databases – HP Performance Manager software – agent-based approach
    • for applications – HP Real-User Monitor software – monitors applications/services/data traffic flows
    • for end-to-end services/applications/network/databases/etc – HP Problem Isolation software – uses advanced correlations and analytics in an attempt to identify the specific problem or condition.
• Resource Reconciliation
  • Universal CMDB software (formerly Mercury, formerly AppLogic)
• Process Orchestration
  • Operations Orchestration Software (formerly Opsware, formerly iConclude)

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 – offers a unified user interface consolidating reports and statistics spanning multiple other product lines within Performance & Availability to IT Service Desks.
• 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.  As mentioned previously, s major hole is in the area of security & prevention.  Second, would you go to HP for your storage management needs over EMC or Symantec (Veritas) when they only seem to have a single storage management product.  I don’t see offerings focused exclusively on monitoring availability and performance, but I may have overlooked it.

Bottom line after all this.  HP is the one to chase from having a comprehensive Data Center Automation strategy.  The unique thing is this can be creatively coupled with various hardware and service offerings they have.  In addition, with the pending EDS acquisition…they ARE the gorilla leading Data Center Automation sector toward the vision of someday being a “lights out data center.”  We still have a long ways to go, but HP Software is well down that road compared to others.

Infra Corporation, was acquired by EMC’s Resource Management Software Business Unit for undisclosed financial terms.

Combined with their previous acquisitions:

SMARTS – Availability & Performance Management – Q1 2005
nLayers -  IT  Resource Reconciliation (e.g., CMDB) – Q3 2006
Voyence – Configuration & Change Management (for Network Devices) – Q4 2007

This acquisition shows a slowly increasing pace of their acquisitions (within the software group).  With that being said, looking at their portfolio, I would be surprised if we don’t see another one or maybe even two (depending on the size) before the year is out.  Areas they could benefit from (aka we could see) would be Configuration & Change Management (for Systems/Applications) or a move to strengthen their Availability & Performance Management offering; specifically more application performance centric.

On the CCM front there are numerous virtual & physical system configuration vendors sprouting up these days, versus before the primary game in town was BladeLogic (or Opsware before HP acquired them).  Meanwhile, on the Performance Management front they have a variety of options that could include grabbing a smaller application performance appliance vendor (e.g., Mazu, Xangati, Packet Design)  or something bigger like maybe a NetQoS.  Or even bigger and more interesting (but convoluted) could be buying out NetIQ who continues to innovate within Attachemate (e.g., Aegis product) or the artist formerly known as Precise Software (and now again known by the same name after Symantec spun them back out).  Probably long shots but just thoughts to ponder as the EMC Resource Management Software portfolio could use portfolio expansion in either or both functional areas of the DCAB.

Bottom line from my outsiders perspective is EMC is one or two moves away from changing conversations from the big 4 to maybe the big 5.

2007 TechTarget Products of the Year – Data Center include (categories by DCAB functional categories):

Resource Reconciliation (category combined with Configuration & Change) solutions from CA, BMC and Scalent

A couple other categories that map to the DCAB are;

Process Orchestration solutions from Symantec, Opalis and CA

Performance & Capacity solutions from NetIQ, BalancePoint and CiRBA

I find the CiRBA solution very intriguing after my read and post on Innovations in Performance Management yesterday.

BarcampESM took place over the weekend.  Here are some materials to take a look at.  BSM by Doug,  Discussions around open software and open standards, the desire for an “open agent” .  From this point forward keep track of things via the Open Management Consortium discussions.

Application Performance Management(APM) rolling review continues at InformationWeek – recently highlighted, ProactiveNet (recently acquired by BMC).  Previous reviews include Quest Software Foglight (Dec 2007), Network General (Nov 2007), Nimsoft Nimbus (Oct 2007), Compuware Vantage (Oct 2007), NetIQ AppManager (Sept 2007), NetQoS SuperAgent (Sept 2007),  Indicative (Aug 2007).  As you can see this is a very congested space, pardon the pun, but it is sized to be over $2B in size by Forrester.

Now that we’ve run through the entire 6 functional areas of the Data Center Automation Blueprint we plant to discuss the impact of virtualization over the next couple posts.  Thanks in advance to those I’ve been talking with and their perspectives on this topic.

I’m calling it resource reconciliation as I would like to see it extend beyond a discovery engine, IT asset database, dependency mapping and the necessary graphical topology and reports.  I also believe that these tools not only should communicate directly with the infrastructure outlined in the Data Center Automation Blueprint (DCAB) – but also synchronize and provide reconciliation capabilities with the 5 other DCAB functions.

What I’m saying is I want to make sure that all my other functional products always are 100% accurate to what my IT infrastructure contains.  There is no reason my performance & capacity products don’t know about a specific IT resource.  Nor, do I want multiple discovery engines combing my infrastructure setting off false alarms in my security products or requiring me to open additional communication avenues making the infrastructure less secure.

Here are a list of the vendors I know of, this space saw some major consolidation during  2006.

BMC
CA (Cendura acquisition)
EMC (nLayers acquisition)
HP (Opsware acquisition)
IBM (Collation acquisition)
Symantec (Relicore acquisition)
Tideway

Another area I’m researching and pondering inclusion in this category are service catalogs (e.g. NewScale)  Any thoughts or opinions on how they compare to the players/products  above?

Proactive Identification (proactive searching for a potential exposure point that could become a situation) which includes:

• IP Scanning – query remotely that simply requires IP address to gather information and determine if their is a potential condition of concern. Vendors include: eEye, nCircle, Nessus, Qualys, McAfee, Rapid7
• Configuration/Settings Auditing – query remotely (using credentials) or having an agent on the system to take a more details look at the configuration files, etc. Vendors include: ConfigureSoft, Ecora, nCircle, Tripwire, Solidcore, Skybox Security
• Penetration Testing – remote query attempts to actually expose or harm a data center resource. Vendor include: Core Security, HP (former Spi Dynamics), IBM (former Watchfire), Imperva, Mu Security, BreakingPoint Systems

Reactive Identification (reactive, collecting of events or watching data flows to identify a condition or re-occuring trend)

• Security Event Consolidation (aka. SEM) – unified view of events from a variety of sources with the hope that you can quickly identify a problem and resolve it sooner after it occurred, or seeing something that tells you that problem may be about to happen. Vendors include: ArcSight, NetForensics, EMC/RSA
• Information Archival & Reporting (aka. SIM) – archiving and then the analysis and mining of all that event data to identify a re-occurring situation that could be resolved. This archive is also a great resource for reporting certain compliance situation to auditors. Vendors include: ArcSight, NetForensics, LogLogic
• Data Leakage – monitoring activities or traffic flows to identify if sensitive information is being . Vendors include: EMC/RSA (Tablus), Reconnex, Symantec (Vontu), Vericept

Alright, that will have to do for now. Identity & Access Management is a whole other area but this will have to do for now. Wow, I’m really starting to realize that this DCAB was biting off more then I could honestly chew Hopefully, it will prove helpful to someone out there. When I do start to make updates the best way to manage that may be moving this to a wiki.

Quick status check, I’ve now taken a first pass on 4 of the 6 functional areas (and most of them require/deserve a return visit sometime soon). Each functional area alone probably could/would be topic enough for an individual blogger (any volunteers). I’ve also had some great recent conversations with people on virtualization, process orchestration and resource reconciliation that i’m eager to talk about. So as I’ve stated before, comments are open for anyone and everyone to add thoughts and commentary. Which vendors did I miss, what capabilities/functions did I miss as we monitor the security in our data center.

• BMC – Performance Manager & ProactiveNet Analytics
• CA – eHealth (former Concord)
• IBM – Netcool Proviso (former Quallaby that Micromuse acquired), Monitoring
• HP – Performance Manager, Performance Insight, Operations
• Quest Software – Foglight, PerformaSure
• Symantec – i3 (former Precise product line Veritas acquired)
• EMC – IP Performance Manager

But then, we have a slew of others that have been around for quite some time now…

• InfoVista - In January ’07 Microsoft announced a $15M licensing deal of their product
• NetQoS -
• Netscout – nGenius & Network General (acquired in November ’07)
• Compuware – Vantage
• Alcatel-Lucent – VitalSuite (former INS)
• Fluke Networks (they also OEM NetQoS’ products)
• Network Instruments (also have reseller relationship with NetQoS)
• NetIQ – AppManager
• Opnet
• Entuity
• Brix Networks
• Keynote
• Gomez

And some innovative up-and-comers in some unique technology/approaches…

Real-Time Behavior/Pattern Analysis through Dynamic Thresholding

• Netuitive
• Integrien

IP Traffic/Packet Flow Monitoring & Analysis

• Xangati
• Apparent Networks
• Packet Design

Open Source Software (OSS) vendors

• Groundwork
• Hyperic
• Nagios
• OpenNMS
• ZenOSS
• Zabbix

Whew..that was more work then I expected to pull together and I’m not done yet…  Please throw into the comment who I’ve missed (I know there has to be a few).

The major challenge here is organizing and breaking down this functional area.  There are so many approaches to obtain performance metrics from/for the data center.  Some of the techniques and perspectives include;

• passive vs. active
• agent vs. agent-less
• in-line appliance vs. out-of-band appliance (e.g., span a port)
• proprietary vs. leverage infrastructure mgmt. capabilities (e.g., Cisco Netflow)
• outside the data center looking in vs. inside the data center itself.
• Reactive troubleshooting vs. Proactive Predictive

I’m going to need to have a part two (and maybe more) for this functional category breaking down the pro’s and con’s of various approaches.  Which vendors do what, etc.  I also need to revisit that question from the top of do we combine this into a single “availability & performance” functional category???  For now, this first pass will have to do…

• Web Application Vulnerability Scanning – IBM acquiring Watchfire, HP acquiring SPI
• Data Leakage Monitoring – Symantec acquiring Vontu, EMC acquire Tablus and others.

As noted, these capabilities aren’t exclusive to the data center but have applicability.

I have some reading to do it seems.  I don’t have the $$$ to pay for the 170 page report but will take the time to go review the website and read articles about many of these vendors then report back what I learn here on this blog.  Reading through the below list I recognize a number of them…but some are names i’ve never even heard of to this point.  My quick notes are mentioned next to the company name…kind of like the word association game “what is the first thing you think of when I say…”

The companies listed by the report that have a virtualization management play include;

3Leaf Systems – who?
Acronis – who?
Akorri – who?
Availigent – who?
Avocent – the ones who acquired LANdesk
BladeLogic – major player in DCA systems/application automation
Blue Lane Technologies – virtual patching appliance
BMC Software – one of the big 4 has something, not sure how deep or what
CA – one of the big 4 has something, not sure how deep or what
Cassatt – virtualization pure play with “green” positioning
Catbird – who?
CiRBA – monitoring product to help with cserver onsolidation efforts
Cisco Systems – big guy with their ambitious Data Center 3.0 initiative
Citrix Systems – acquired XenSource post VMware IPO
CohesiveFT – who?
CollabNet – who?
Configuresoft – big but still growing systems & security mgmt player
Desktone – who?
DeviceVM – who?
Egenera – who?
eG Innovations – who?
Embotics – who?
Enigmatec – who?
Enomaly – who?
FastScale – who?
Hewlett-Packard – major player/move with Opsware acquisition
Hyperic – who?
IBM – one of the big 4 has something, not sure how deep or what
illumita – who?
InfoVista – not sure what they have in virtualization, maybe a performance monitoring for some virtual servers?
InovaWave – who?
Leostream – who?
Marathon Technologies – who?
Mendocino Software – who?
Microsoft – guerilla, who will have an impact in this space!
Netuitive – automated performance threshold monitoring, i assume they must do this for virtual servers to be included here.
Network Appliance – not sure
Nimsoft – application monitoring, been on my todo list to read more on them.
Novell – big guy, has some play here – not sure what
Onaro – who?
Pano Logic – who?
PlateSpin – known virtualization automation player i’ve talked about previously
Platform Computing – who?
Quest Software – database, application monitoring
Qumranet – who?
Red Hat – linux
Reflex Security – who?
RingCube – who?
Scalent Systems – known virtualization player with recent major OEM announcements
ScienceLogic – who?
SteelEye Technology – who?
Stratavia – Run Book Automation
Surgient – austin company, not sure what they have these days…need to look
SWsoft and Parallels – Macintosh ability to run Windows
Sychron – who?
Sun Microsystems – solaris and grid computing initiatives
Symantec – security and storage with some systems products they’ve acquired
ToutVirtual – who?
Univa UD – who?
Veeam Software – known virtualization player i’ve previously talked about
Virtual Iron – heard of them…haven’t looked at them yet though
Virtugo Software – who?
Vizioncore – known virtualization player i’ve previously talked about
VMLogix – heard of them…haven’t look at them yet though
VMware – if you don’t know this name you must dead, or atleast not into technology or the stock market
XDS – who?
Xsigo – who?

Bottom line, I have a ton of reading to do!!!  I’ll start with the smaller guys and work my way up.  If you have any perspectives or insights please don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments section.

Part of the reason for this oversight is these days most data centers are locked into a product from the “big 4″ vendors; BMC (Performance, formerly Patrol), CA (formerly Aprisma), HP (NNM, Operations), IBM (NetView, formerly Micromuse) or the “upcoming 5″ vendors EMC, Oracle, Microsoft, Quest Software and Symantec due to their overall IT infrastructure architecture and strategy.

But their are other innovative players in town to consider for replacement or complimenting these bigger guys. Self-learning technologies are being advanced by companies like Netuitive and Integrien. These technologies are focused on monitoring real-time events and then leveraging mathematical algorithms to estimate baselines and set thresholds in an attempt to accurately predict system and service level degradation.