IBM Corp’s SystemView Series – code-named Karat (CI No 2,369) – is no longer a concept: it is a product available now on two CD-ROMs. It enables system management software to be launched from the graphical user interface on an RS/6000 running AIX, and consists of 22 products – including NetView – gathered into a single package, and seems to be an attempt by IBM to get its foot into the door before Computer Associates International Inc takes the entire market with CA-Unicenter. Not all the components are IBM’s, but it would not reveal the third party developers although Candle Corp has been heavily involved. A third disk is on the horizon with further non-IBM components. The interface – using object drag-and-drop technology – makes for ease of installation and a doggone simple world according to Don Haile, general manager of the network software division. SystemView is IBM’s first concerted attempt to make client-server computing a success – chairman Louis Gerstner’s top priority for the software division, says Haile. A fully object-oriented version is promised for late 1995 with SystemView for OS/2 Warp, MVS and OS/400 releases also due this year. Versions for Windows NT, Sun Microsystems Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co systems come in 1996, as the market dictates, says Haile. The 22 components are separately priced and users can pick and choose from them.
