OpenVision Inc, the Unix systems management start-up with the big bankroll, is getting its ducks in a row to plunge into the NT pond. The company is planning a two-phase two-product foray that will begin in December with an NT Client Console. Its big push, however, will come next year when it moves the core applications in its suite over to Advanced Server and integrates them with Hermes. OpenVision says its customers are already going nuts over this stuff and claims that one of them, described only as a large manufacturing firm, has contractually committed to taking 1,000 copies of the phase-two product despite the fact that it’s still on the drawing board. OpenVision is currently planning only iAPX-86 versions while watching PowerPC with keen interest and Alpha with one eye. R-series is not a consideration. The fact that NT is still not multi-user and only pre-emptively multitasking currently restricts OpenVision’s Advanced Server development. It is hoping to get access to the necessary beta Applications Programming Interfaces in the autumn. The initial NT Console product is not a straight conversion of any existing product but a rebuild of key pieces of OpenVision Unix products starting with the interface. It will be converted to Win32 and given a Windows look-and-feel that adopts the same visual layout as the Motif system. The company’s intelligent agents will also move to NT. The Console will do event management, basic security administration, backup, client-server performance monitoring and scheduling of remote jobs. It will be able to manage NetWare, TCP/IP, LAN Manager and IBM Corp LAN Server networks equipped with Unix, OS/2 and NT clients but the OpenVision applications must still reside on a Unix server. The more robust NT Advanced Server Management System, as phase two is currently called, is a different kettle of fish. Here, the applications will run under Advanced Server and NT will be a Unix peer. Besides the functionality of the Console, it is supposed to provide hierarchical storage management, SecureMax for increased security auditing, database tools including a Defrag and Oracle archival capabilities and an enterprise-wide production scheduling system. It may be augmented with other workgroup applications. OpenVision conceives of it as both a downsizing and an upsizing tool, and offers the ability to deploy and manage applications and data seamlessly across both Unix and NT-based systems transparently. The user benefits from being able to pick kit based on processor cost. OpenVision expects to sell the Advanced Server Management System as both a suite and as independent products. Pricing to be finalised.
