ing service-level agreements (SLAs) and demanding policy-based quality of service (QoS) agreements from telcos.
Besides the Internet factor, two other trends are transforming enterprise management. Vendors of systems management and network management tools are continuing the consolidation trend that began in 1996. Computer Associates (CA) bought Cheyenne, Tivoli acquired Unison (leading developer of workload management software for distributed computing environments), IBM bought Tivoli, Boole & Babbage acquired Maxm, Bay Networks acquired Xylogics, Ascend Communications acquired Cascade Communications, HP acquired Uniprise (for database management), and Cisco bought StrataCom and Netsys Technologies. Thanks to acquisitions like these, traditional
network management vendors were able to add systems management functionality to their products. Meanwhile, systems management vendors enhanced their products not only with device-level monitoring (associated with network management) but also with application-level monitoring and service-level management.
Probably even more significant to customers, however, is the general move away from proprietary systems toward more "open" and interoperable systems based on standards like Simple Network Management Protocol. SNMP describes how devices and management consoles communicate; it uses agent software embedded in network devices to collect network traffic information and device statistics. RMON, or remote monitor, is a popular and useful extension to SNMP introduced in 1991 to monitor media (as opposed to devices). And now we have another standard emerging: JMAPI, the Java Management API.
It's clear we're moving toward (re)centralized network and systems management. The goal: enterprise management from a
single console.
Challenges to Unification
Unifying network and systems management into a single enterprise framework has been an uphill task. Vendors have faced a number of challenges, including:
Network vs. systems management.
Network management and systems management have been different and separate tasks, each with its own staff. "Hardware guys" tended to be responsible for a firm's networks. Initially, these were vendor-specific, host-based systems like those from IBM or Digital and later, Unix and PC-based LANs as well. Systems staff typically tackled operations-center tasks such as backup and recovery, security, software distribution and configuration, and help-desk problems. Like a bad blind date, these two groups seemed to have little in common.
Tool problems.
Even their resources seemed to mandate against unity. Network administrators have needed a broad range of tools to monitor and administer the network. Dozens of such tools have emerged, especially for th
e proprietary host-based networks from IBM and Digital, where tool vendors could charge "mainframe" prices. As Unix and TCP/IP and LANs made inroads into the corporate scene, networks became more complex, managing them became more difficult, and lower-cost PC LAN management tools appeared. Then, in the '90s, Unix-based network and systems management consoles such as IBM NetView, HP OpenView, and CA-Unicenter (now called
Unicenter TNG
-- for "The New Generation") emerged as the tools of choice for overseeing increasingly multivendor networks.
Device tool competition.
Network devices themselves are shipping with increasingly sophisticated monitoring software of their own. Router giant Cisco, for example, recently introduced the Cisco Resource Manager, a suite of Web-based management tools that handles inventory and software distribution and works in conjunction with the more device-oriented CiscoWorks. With the combination of CiscoWorks and Cisco Resource Manager, network mana
gers can not only keep track of all the Cisco routers, switches, and other SNMP devices on the corporate network, they can also distribute software to those devices and correlate and analyze system log messages. Similarly, Bay Networks keeps enhancing its network management package, Optivity, to support new technologies such as ATM networks and virtual LANs. In the fall, Bay released Optivity 8.0, which weaves the object-based Xylogics' Net Architect product into Optivity. Net Architect uses Object Design's object database to store information about network objects.
Unused standards.
SNMP crops up a lot when you read about network or enterprise management, but SNMP doesn't solve all your problems. SNMP still can't manage many network devices. So-called legacy networks such as IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA) and Digital's DECnet were never designed to be SNMP-compliant. CA's Unicenter TNG, for example, relies on SNMP and other agents to gather information about the status of devices on t
he network. It initially shipped without support for SNA or DECnet networks and eventually had to add gateway agents to let administrators "see" those legacy networks.
To complicate matters, most software hasn't shipped with built-in SNMP agents. That's beginning to change, especially for database systems, but it's a problem for network administrators expected to monitor databases and applications as well as network devices. A more serious problem for large networks is the basic polling, or response-and-query, method by which SNMP works. It simply doesn't scale well with thousands of devices. From the viewpoint of network management, scalability usually has three perspectives: the number of managed objects, the rate of managed alerts, and the number of concurrent operators that can view or intervene on the system. An effective, scalable distributed systems management tool also needs to provide multilevel, drill-down access to all managed objects across the enterprise. In addition, it must be able to dis
tribute intelligent agents onto midlevel consoles that cascade management tasks out to regional systems staffed by lower-level personnel.
Console creep.
Until the Internet raised the bar on the need for global standards, there had been another obstacle to unity. Both hardware and software vendors tended to offer their own management software. The result has been "console creep," where console refers to the "dashboards" from which administrators monitor devices or processes.
Some vendors have been working with leading management platforms such as HP OpenView and Tivoli TME to make sure their products could interoperate. But having to write gateways and drivers is inconvenient at best. The industry has recognized that customers want a single console from which to monitor their entire network, including their intranets. In other words, customer demand has fueled the merger and acquisition binge we have witnessed over the last two years. In addition to the examples mentioned earlier, HP acquire
d the Norton network management tools from Symantec, and Digital sold most of Polycenter to Computer Associates, with IBM/Tivoli picking up Polycenter Manager for use with NetView.
Other vendors, notably Boole & Babbage and Candle, approached the problem by creating "manager of manager" consoles with their Command/Post and Command Center products, respectively.
Frameworks, NT, Internet
Besides industry consolidation, four additional trends are evident. One is the
framework
, a foundation of services (such as CA Unicenter's Framework and Microsoft's Management Console) into which you can plug additional products.
The second is Windows NT. While many struggle to combine network and systems management into single products, frameworks, or suites, dozens of new tools designed specifically for NT networks have emerged, such as AppManager, from NetIQ, and Dynameasure, from Bluecurve. Existing management platforms, which had been available only under Unix, were also ported to NT.
Both Unicenter TNG and Tivoli TME 10 have been ported to NT.
The third trend -- a revolution in distributed network management -- is the Internet. The Internet, after all, promises platform-independent network management, where theoretically any browser can retrieve management data anytime, from anywhere. It's no surprise that vendors in all categories of tools are scurrying to offer Java interfaces to their products. The jury is still out, however, on the feasibility of such an architecture.
New standards are the fourth trend. The Java Management API (JMAPI) functions were just finalized in 1997, so such tools are not yet available, although they're sure to emerge. The same is true for the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) initiative, spearheaded by Microsoft and some 60 other vendors -- including HP, Tivoli, and Cisco. Central to WBEM is the Common Information Model (CIM), which provides a common way to describe and share management information across the enterprise. Expect to see products
that support CIM by early 1998. The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface for Windows should result in better power management and also solve the thorny problem of managing powered-down systems.
Enterprise Managers: The Short List
Customers expect a lot from today's systems, such as:
- Automatic discovery of network devices, including across virtual LANs and virtual networks
- Asset management
- Graphical views of networks and network statistics
- Service-level management (SLM)
- Capacity planning
- Disaster planning and recovery
- Job scheduling, with batch execution, file transfer, and conditional scheduling
- Software distribution
- Security management and user administration, including single sign-on
- Audit trail for configurations/changes
- Event-based triggers (e.g., low disk space)
- Bandwidth and utilization prediction
- Support for application monitoring and administration (e.g., database, help desk, and other client/server applicati
ons)
- Virus protection
Plus, customers expect proactive, not just reactive, systems -- even systems that can "heal" themselves. Add Web site management, TCP/IP address management, and directory services and you'll understand why the marketplace is crowded, confusing, and dynamic.
We have identified three products that seem poised to leverage their market dominance as they evolve into true distributed enterprise managers: HP OpenView, IBM's Tivoli TME 10, and Unicenter TNG. Microsoft's products remain a wildcard.
HP OpenView
HP OpenView is the oldest (1990) and best-known Unix-based management platform on the market today. With over 120,000 installations, it's also the market leader. OpenView's strength is network management based on an extended SNMP
manager/agent
model that adds some systems and LAN management. OpenView consists of five manager components:
- Network Node Manager (NNM) for network management
- IT/Operations for operations a
nd problem management
- IT/Administration for configuration and change management
- PerfView and NetMetrix for resource and performance management
- OmniBack II for backup management
Additional functionality comes from Norton Administrator for Networks and from Expose agents (which perform automatic error-handling such as alarm notification by pager or e-mail). All OpenView components, except for IT/Operations and IT/Administration, have been ported to NT. The two core components are on schedule for NT availability in late 1997 or early 1998.
OpenView's strengths are its market share, large third-party applications base (Raptor Systems' RaptorView firewall, for example, can pass data up to OpenView), and centralized network and performance management. However, customers complain: HP is slow to market (like the missing NT components and incomplete integration of the Norton products); OpenView lacks a single, central database for network information; OpenView is losing market momentu
m. Worse, HP's announcement at Computer Associates' CA-World '97 that HP would support Unicenter was widely seen as a retreat.
Not all the news is bad, however. Last summer, HP announced agreements with Dell, Silicon Graphics, and Stratus. They will ship HP's new OpenView-Ready Network Node Manager (HP OpenView "Lite") with some of their servers. Many viewed the announcements relating to OpenView-Ready NNM as the closest HP has come to the "give it away" distribution championed by Microsoft and Netscape. Another important initiative is HP's positioning OpenView as the vehicle for service-level management. HP isn't alone in promising SLA/SLM, however. Boole & Babbage promises proactive "desired state management." Even Network General, whose Sniffer is widely considered the Cadillac of network monitors, is moving up the enterprise chain and offering a service-level manager -- built with technology acquired from 3DV Technology earlier this year.
IBM's Tivoli
Tivoli, a subsidiary of IBM s
ince 1996, has evolved from a basis in systems management. Tivoli integrated IBM's SystemView into TME 10's object-based architecture quickly, but integrating IBM's NetView, including MVS support, is still under way. Meanwhile, the new Global Enterprise Manager (GEM) will add application management and monitoring to TME 10.
TME 10, like HP OpenView, consists of many modules, including: Tivoli Enterprise Console (TEC), which can display NetView messages; Distributed Monitor; NetView; NetView Mid-Level Manager; Performance Monitor; Reporter; User Administration; Security Management; Job Scheduler; Remote Control; Information Management; Print Management; Software Distribution; Inventory; and DBMX (recently acquired, for heterogeneous database administration).
Tivoli also offers modules to interoperate with products like SAP and BMC. As you'd expect, a DB2 Enterprise Control Center for TME 10 modules lets TME administer DB2 databases.
Tivoli has embraced the Common Object Request Broker Archite
cture (CORBA)
ORB-based
approach to distributed management. Its policy- and profile-driven management is an advanced, object-based design that permits multiple management domains and includes extensive security features. In late summer, IBM shipped an integration module, TMN Enterprise Management Feature, that links IBM's Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) Support Facility with TME 10. Telecommunications service providers can now remotely install, configure, deploy, and maintain services based on the widely used TMN standard. On the downside, TME 10 lacks end-to-end network management (currently under development), and some fault it as being too modular. Tivoli/TMN competes with Sun's Solstice Enterprise Manager, also popular in telecommunications. However, some observers perceive Sun as having lost momentum and leadership in network management. Sun Microsystems president Ed Zander admits, "We didn't keep the kind of pace we should have. We still have work to do."
Aware of
demand for Java clients, Tivoli planned to have shipped a Lightweight Client Framework (LCF) by the time you read this. The Windows 95-hosted LCF will use a combination of Java and CORBA, the first step in a planned TME 10 evolution to supporting Java APIs.
Computer Associates
With the July debut of Unicenter TNG at CA-World '97, Computer Associates' Unicenter systems management product morphed into an enterprise management suite, based on a "free" framework. Consider what CA gave away on a CD-ROM to over 20,000 CA-World attendees:
- Auto Discovery identifies SNMP-compliant and TCP/IP devices, but not DECnet or SNA devices.
- Object Repository creates a database of all collected information, including device properties like version or release category. The current repository is based on Microsoft SQL Server 6.x: CA's own object-oriented "Jasmine" isn't ready yet. The full product also supports Oracle.
- 2-D and 3-D Mapping user interfaces give administrators 2-D or 3-D views of
the network; 3-D mapping uses animation and Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) to simulate floor plans of devices in a building. A powerful marketing tool.
- Scheduling and Event Management stores definitions of policies and acceptable operational thresholds (e.g., disk space) and provides job scheduling.
- Canned reports, plus customizable reports and charting.
CA, with its large mainframe customer base, should get credit for seeing the NT wave before competitors. Thanks to an agreement with Microsoft's BackOffice team, CA shipped Unicenter TNG for NT months before a Unix version. The company also cleverly flooded the market with Unicenter CD-ROMs and free two-day seminars on using Unicenter TNG.
Unicenter TNG's architecture consists of the WorldView UI with its Common Object Repository and the Enterprise Management part, with fundamental manager/agent functionality and the Agent Factory API.
CA is on a roll with TNG. With this NT-based product, administrators get not only
the appealing 3-D interface but also business views of enterprise resources and an object-based, extensible architecture that should serve well into the future.
Despite initially lacking it, CA now offers TNG users both SNA and DECnet support (at extra cost). CA also offers TNG for Digital Unix and OpenVMS, to manage legacy Digital systems and upgrade from Digital Polycenter, most of which technology CA has acquired.
CA also aggressively courts third-party partners. The National Registry, Inc., for example, offers finger-image-based NRIdentity Secure Authentication Facility for TNG (SAF/TNG), augmenting TNG's password-based log-on. From Unicenter you can access SAP, HP OpenView, and Cabletron Spectrum.
CA supports both JMAPI and WBEM. The company plans to enhance support of Web monitoring by acquiring Sequel Technology, whose Sequel Net Access Manager handles access privileges and monitors Net usage.
Microsoft
Microsoft has been shipping Systems Management Server (SMS) for sev
eral years. Despite perceptions that SMS has poor market penetration, Microsoft claims a large installed base and says the product is effectively used for software distribution. This year the company began shipping a beta of Microsoft Management Console (MMC), which some mistook as a bad sign for SMS.
However, the truth appears to be that MMC will be built into the upcoming Windows NT 5.0 to provide fundamental network management services. MMC's architecture relies on "snap-in" components based on the Component Object Model (COM) and Distributed COM (DCOM). Microsoft seems to be offering fundamental NT 5.0 performance monitoring and will continue to offer SMS, including as an MMC snap-in. As new servers roll out, SQL Server and Exchange will undoubtedly also have snap-ins that allow monitoring from a common console. Expect third-party vendors to provide product snap-ins as well.
Soup to Nuts
Network managers face challenges their predecessors never imagined: heterogeneous networks, demand
s for better accountability, and a wildly dynamic marketplace. No surprise that the Gartner Group predicts that by 2000, 75 percent of organizations will outsource some network management function.
We have focused on the "soup to nuts" enterprise management tools emerging as market leaders. Yet there are dozens of other products available. Not all IT shops embrace enterprise management consoles, opting perhaps for "best of breed" point solutions or their own solutions. Unfortunately, there are no simple answers. You must consider your own infrastructure, your staff skills, and how important integrated application and SLA monitoring are to you. But if you are considering a decision about an enterprise management tool, you now have the fundamental information you need for your evaluation.
Where to Find
Ascend Communications
Alameda, CA
Phone: 800-ASCEND-4
Phone: 510-769-6001
Internet:
http://www.ascend.com
Commanding the Enterprise
