Fiorina: OpenView key to HP net plans

FRAMINGHAM (06/26/2000) - OpenView is central to all of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Internet software plans, according to the company's top executive, Carly Fiorina.

The head of HP last Tuesday afternoon addressed via videoconference a group of 2,000-plus users at OpenView 2000, a trade show held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Although known primarily as a hardware firm, HP has recognized the importance of its software business, Fiorina says, and OpenView in particular.

The network management platform has been one of HP's most solid success stories, with its 120,000 installations and inclusion in some of the largest nets and ISPs in the world.

Of late, the company has been bolstering its software lineup, adding Web quality-of-service and security products to its roster. Like Tivoli and Computer Associates, HP claims it is trying to accommodate users who are moving to a 'Net-based business model and offering some type of e-service, such as an application or service delivered over the Web.

The OpenView management brand is going to be the centerpiece of the firm's strategy, providing centralized security, application and service-level agreement management to enterprises and service providers, HP says. The company is emphasizing it will let IS staff monitor and manage Internet transaction processes from beginning to end.

These are steps in the right direction, says Jim Hanrahan, director of enterprise services at application service provider elcom.com, an Internet-based procurement company in Norwood, Mass. In fact, he would like to see OpenView go even faster in adding more devices and applications to its repertoire. His company's network is constantly changing, he says, and as he adds routers or new disk drives he would like to see OpenView keep pace.

Indeed, while some observers claim network platform vendors are in decline, losing market share to individual product firms, HP executives were upbeat about OpenView. Newly installed General Manager Patty Azzarello assured users in her keynote that OpenView was seeing accelerated growth. However, she does want to make some changes.

For instance, she said she wants to see OpenView recognized as a premier product in its own right, not just an adjunct to HP's hardware business. This will require a lot of marketing. She also wants to exploit the parent company in various ways; one example could include sending OpenView representatives on sales calls with regular HP salespeople, instead of them working separately.

Azzarello added that HP's work to make the separate applications under the OpenView umbrella interoperate with one another is continuing. There also is a need to make some changes in how the company delivers mainframe management capabilities. HP relies on Sterling Software's Big Iron management software, but rival Computer Associates International Inc. acquired that company, so it's time to come up with a new plan.

Products and services rollout

As expected, HP announced the addition of a new series of Smart Plug-In modules to manage Linux servers and applications (www.nwfusion. com, DocFinder:

8740), as well as enhanced Internet-based services.

The company also announced new features in OpenView VantagePoint 6.0, an e-business management application. The suite will let IS staff pinpoint where a failure in a transaction is occurring, whether in the network or in the ISP cloud. IS staff will also be notified if users can't execute transactions or if response times are lagging. The enhancements should be available next month.

Vantage Point starts at US$20,000 and runs on Unix and Windows NT servers.

HP: www.openview.hp.com.