Best Systems Management Platform: HP OpenView Zeros In On Top Management
Spot
System management has been the forte of IBM and Computer Associates for
some time now. Hewlett-Packard, however, has taken on this market with exceptional
zeal. HP's third-party support, strong networking lineage and broad support
for managed clients makes it our choice for system management of heterogeneous
environments. What makes OpenView so good? It starts with a strong, network-oriented,
open platform and builds from there. The open nature of HP's OpenView product
also makes it well suited to heterogeneous systems management.
HP's OpenView consists of a number of separate products that make up a complete
system management and/or network management system. HP has defined a framework
into which it and other companies can easily add management modules.
System administrators can use AdminCenter to globally manage users, systems,
file systems, peripherals and anything else on the network that requires
administration. The software can implement policies as well as facilitate
easier global administration of resources.
With AdminCenter, system administrators can manage devices by their class.
For example, all routers or servers can be managed as a group for things
such as changing administrative passwords. This object-oriented nature of
the software makes AdminCenter an excellent tool for managing large environments
with similar systems deployed throughout the enterprise.
OperationsCenter is HP's general-purpose, multivendor, operation monitoring
and maintenance package. HP has recruited a number
of strategic partners
to develop modules for managing software and systems throughout the network.
Operators are given options commensurate with their access level whenever
a problem comes up. In some cases, OperationsCenter will act on its own
to correct a problem, such as restarting stopped processes. In other cases,
an operator will be asked to select from a list of possible actions.
The third key offering in OpenView's system management is its software distribution
agent, called Software Distributor. HP's distribution software supports
a number of platforms, including Unix and PC operating systems. This support
makes OpenView unique.
IBM and Computer Associates are very strong players in this arena as well.
IBM has a great deal of experience managing the largest systems in the world.
Computer Associates leverages its extensive experience in business system
software to offer a system that can tie together everything from workgroup
Novell servers to mainframe systems to Internet resou
rces. With the addition
of network management, Unicenter would be a formidable contender to manage
any enterprise computer system.
Honorable Mention:
CA-Unicenter, Computer Associates International
SystemView for AIX, IBM Corp.
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