Customers have told us that they’re looking for one-stop shopping when it comes to managing production workflow in their enterprise management operations, said Frank Moss, Tivoli CEO and general manager of IBM’s network and management business. Tivoli is buying Unison Software Inc for its flagship product, Maestro, a distributed job scheduler that is mostly installed on HP-UX and MPE systems, although there is some (agent-based) cross Unix functionality (CI No 3,247). Tivoli claims that Maestro communicates with IBM’s mainframe job scheduling package – OPC. Unison’s been a Tivoli 10/Plus partner for four years, but Maestro’s also being integrated with Tivoli rival Computer Associates International Inc’s Unicenter TNG Framework. Besides Maestro, Unison’s other products include a storage management package (RoadRunner) and output management package (Vista) for MPE and Unix environments. Unison, founded in 1979 has approximately $40M annual revenues and claims a 4,500 strong customer base. What does the competition think? Seen this, done that, mostly.
Routinely criticized
CA reckons that the acquisition of Unison means Tivoli is tacitly admitting a couple of key points it has long advocated in marketing Unicenter. First that customers require integrated one-stop shopping management solutions. Two, that the integration of core components is more important than the integration of APIs, and that it’s also key to attracting ISVs. Maestro follows the integration of IBM’s NetView network management system and Memco Software’s SeOS security software into the Tivoli management schema. CA thinks given Unison’s HP bent, the future of HP OpenView is affected far Unicenter TNG. It says Tivoli is trying to have its cake and eat it too, while talking out of both sides of their mouths, because despite buying crucial functionality [Maestro], Tivoli continues to insist that they will work openly with ISVs on the TME 10 Framework. CA observes that while IBM has routinely criticized it for integrating third party technologies by way of acquisition, that the two largest shareholders of Unison will net more than $50m through their 32% share holding. What kind of message does that send to other third party management companies such as Platinum Technology Inc (AutoSys) and New Dimension (Control-M)? it wonders. Furthermore, when will IBM get around to integrating its three scheduling solutions: OPC, Job Scheduler for AIX and Maestro? Our bird’s eye perspective is that IBM is building up a formidable arsenal of management solutions that, if it can integrate them in a timely fashion, will pose a serious threat to CA’s Unicenter. We wonder what other scraps that are left on the table from management also-rans HP OpenView and SunNet manager can either use to fill in gaps or gain competitive advantage?
