It’s the first step in what will be the rollout of the next versions of its flagship products, covering server, network, and storage automation, which will be announced next month.
The product in question, Opsware Process Automation System (PAS), automates the workflows that data center operators perform to keep IT infrastructure working.
The new version of the process suite, Opsware PAS 7.0, provides two-way links to Opsware’s main products. That is, when you use develop an automated workflow for installing new software patches or add new VMware containers, PAS will now automatically open up subtasks performed by Opsware’s Server, Network, or Storage Automation systems. Before, you had to integrate the subtasks yourself.
Additionally, if you are using one of Opsware’s core products and also happen to have PAS installed, when you perform a task such as provisioning new software, it can call up the appropriate PAS workflow.
Besides integration with core Opsware modules, version 7.0 adds support of distributed data centers, whose IT process workflows formerly had to be managed as multiple separate instances. And it adds support of Kerberos authentication, in addition to existing support for LDAP and Microsoft Active directory.
The new version also increases ITIL support. While it already supported the dozen top level ITIL processes, the new version adds more granular support to ITIL subtasks. And it also extends support to the 27 major processes of ITIL v3, which is still quite early in the adoption curve.
Additionally, Opsware has doubled the number of workflow templates to roughly 2000, and has added some user interface tweaks to make it easier to construct process workflows. And version 7.0 also adds and updates connectors (called accelerator packs) to third party offerings.
Additions include an update to Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2007 and added support of CA Unicenter NSM. Other additions target BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, and Red Hat JBoss Java appservers.
Our View
Although Gartner Group has cursed the sector with a horse and buggy title, Run Book Automation, which conjures up the automation scripts written for mainframe data centers, when you start dealing with the higher level, service management concepts of ITIL, what you’re really automating is IT’s processes. So call it the BPM, or process automation for the data center.
For Opsware, spending $60m for iConclude last spring to add its own form of BPM has turned out to be a pretty shrewd deal. After the deal closed in April, Opsware reported that it doubled the iConclude installed base within three months. Today Opsware claims that iConclude is a key part of each major deal, implying that new sales of core products now typically have the process automation piece.
Significantly, Opsware made the PAS version 7 announcement ahead of the rollout for the rest of its product line, which is scheduled for next month. PAS went out first because it has become the basis of our process integrations for the other products, explained Sunny Gupta, executive vice president of products.
There is little question of the synergy between the process automation piece and the rest of the product line. If you have a tool that manages changes to IT infrastructure, it makes sense to embed your best practices as automated workflows. In fact, BMC made a similar move in acquiring RealOps just last month.
So Opsware (soon to be part of HP), and eventually BMC, are going to claim that they’re the only ones that tie together workflow or process automation with actual systems or service management. In all likelihood, CA and IBM/Tivoli will likely acquire similar pieces of technology before long.
For Opsware, there are likely to be further synergies once HP closes the acquisition of Opsware, which it expects to do by the end of the quarter. The potential synergies aren’t only with HP’s OpenView management framework, but some of Mercury’s more business-focused offerings such as Business Availability Center, which translates infrastructure availability to its impact ion business operations.
