IBM Corp showed its first pass at its next-generation Karat network management environment at Networld+InterOp. Karat is a collection of technologies IBM will add atop core NetView for AIX modules, which are grouped into three tiers. First are new graphical interface components that provide integrated access to management facilities such as a new launch pad, from which all NetView components can be accessed. The initial Karat graphical user interface features will be launched next month. A second tier will bring new procedural and object-oriented technologies to NetView. The third layer will provide fully object-oriented applications and services. It is the same kind of functionality that IBM will gradually bring to management systems running under its other systems, including OS/400, OS/2 and MVS. Indeed IBM is bringing the SystemView nomenclature it employs on its proprietary lines to AIX: last week it was calling the new NetView environment SystemView for AIX and SystemView Karat in the same breath. The core NetView kernel will continue to evolve in a joint development with Digital Equipment Corp, which has no plans to license any parts of Karat. There will be a new release of the NetView kernel in the fourth quarter, along with a new performance monitoring and configuration management application. DEC says it is concentrating on conversion of its PolyCenter NetView implementation to Windows NT and the Common Object Model/Object Linking & Embedding object architecture. Thereafter, it will move PolyCenter onto ObjectBroker.
