HP SalesTools Copyright Gartner Group, Inc. c 1993 SalesTools Product Announcement August 24, 1993 Prepared for CSO by Gartner Group, Inc. IBM and Digital Equipment Corp. NetView/6000 Announcement SUMMARY On Tuesday, August 24, Digital Equipment announced that they will license IBM's NetView/6000 and port it to Digital Equipment's Alpha line of systems. This new Digital product suite for systems and network management will be named POLYCENTER NetView, with the IBM NetView/6000 technology as the core. The existing DEC POLYCENTER framwork for VMS will remain unchanged. It will be a partnership with joint engineering and marketing, and future releases of NetView/6000 and POLYCENTER NetView will be released concurrently and will be identical in function. This announcement effectively signals Digital's departure from the networked system management (NSM) arena as a standalone player, and continues DEC's migration away from being a vendor of Digital-only software. DETAILS OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT The licensing agreement covers the range of system and network management tools and APIs developed by IBM, DEC and to a certain degree, by those of Hewlett-Packard in its OpenView product. The first port, scheduled for the 1st quarter of 1994, is for NetView/6000 on DEC's OSF/1 Alpha AXP platform. Ports for Windows NT (Alpha AXP and Intel) and Alpha Open VMS AXP will come later. The announcement will stress joint responsibility for porting and enhancements; in effect, a full partnership that extends to the end of the '90s. There is shared responsibility for porting and enhancements. Future releases will be identical and concurrent. Marketing will be done jointly as well, and integration of tools from ISVs will be concurrent for both vendors' versions of NetView. A Joint Partners Association will be formed to attract ISV participation in the porting of NetView applications to the product suite. BUSINESS STRATEGY The primary thrust of the announcement is to establish the IBM/DEC NetView product suite as the preeminent solution for system and network management. IBM will attempt to differentiate the NetView product from its OpenView roots to the extent that, over time, it will be a completely different product, and will not be dependent on Hewlett-Packard enhancements or technology. The alliance of IBM and Digital signals the beginning of a thrust to manage networks of legacy systems, with the potential for thousands of nodes, in addition to the Unix- based systems embraced by OpenView. Because IBM licenses the OpenView core technology, IBM will continue to benefit from the wealth of applications being ported to that technology framework, while Hewlett-Packard will not necessarily gain the same interoperability on new NetView products, because the APIs being developed by IBM are not backwardly compatible with OpenView. IBM and DEC are attempting to establish NetView as the best technology choice for managing the network, stressing the following differentiators: 1. IBM/DEC extensions to enhance functionality 2. Best User Interface ( Motif-based at first ) 3. Inclusion of HP OpenView Technology 4. Management of diverse nets, including SNA and DECnet networks 5. Incorporation of POLYCENTER tools 6. Combined Digital and IBM expertise in managing large networked environments 7. Commitment to Openness The message to customers is that the new alliance establishes IBM and DEC as the best choice for a framework to manage any combination of open or proprietary systems in the enterprise. The message to current POLYCENTER customers is that DEC will continue to support existing POLYCENTER customers, while migrating the existing base to the new POLYCENTER/NetView product. This is consistent with DEC's migration toward Alpha for its user base, since POLYCENTER NetView is only targeted at Alpha-based systems for the foreseeable future. DEC is also signaling, once again, that it is not a primary provider of software. This announcement is consistent with other recent DEC initiatives that remove it from the software "business". SIGNIFICANCE TO HEWLETT-PACKARD The announcement is of particular importance to Hewlett- Packard because the NetView/6000 product is based on HP's OpenView. IBM licensed the core technology from HP and has enhanced it for their own use by adding API's (Application Programming Interfaces) for managing IBM mainframes in an SNA environment. The announcement represents a break with Hewlett- Packard's direction in system management, and delivers the message that IBM intends to establish itself, with DEC as a partner, as the preeminent networked management vendor for the huge base of legacy IBM and DEC systems, as well as for the emerging base of Unix systems covered by OpenView. In fact, IBM has announced a system monitor for HP-UX so that NetView can be used to manage HP systems. IThe announcement will certainly be construed as IBM and DEC attempting to wrest control from OpenView as the best emerging framework for managing networks of heterogeneous systems. IBM and DEC will attack OpenView as being tied to a TCP/IP and SNMP heritage that is not extensible to the larger, more complex networks of proprietary legacy mainframes and midrange systems that require SNA and DECnet extensibility. IBM will continue to differentiate NetView/6000 from its OpenView core so that new applications written for its product will not be usable by HP, unless they are ported to OpenView by the vendor providing the solution. Eventually, Gartner Group anticipates that IBM NetView/6000 will no longer rely at all on OpenView technology. At the same time, IBM/DEC will continue to benefit from new applications ported to OpenView as a result of the license agreement, so that third-party solutions for Netware management, for example, will be available to IBM. This announcement, therefore, represents a major initiative by IBM and DEC to take control of the management of the network, and to use HP'-developed technology as the trampoline to do so. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES Gartner Group perceives a number of implications in this announcement, both for the principals and for Hewlett- Packard. These may be grouped relative to each other as being stronger or weaker indicators for IBM/DEC. IBM wins credibility for NetView One clear impression is that IBM strengthens its hand in the system and network management arena, as well as in its perception as an Open Systems leader. In differentiating its offering from HP's OpenView, IBM is clearly flexing its muscle, and hopes to surpass HP's reputation as the industry leader in this market in the perception of customers. It appears to be IBM's intention to leave OpenView technology behind and have NetView stand on its own. NetView wins significant "mindshare" in its adoption by DEC, is enhanced by the POLYCENTER additions, and still enjoys the benefits of its OpenView heritage. New applications written for NetView would have to be ported to OpenView under a separate licensing agreement. DEC, by contrast, is in a different situation. DEC has clearly ceded some control to IBM, and will be viewed as the secondary player in this scenario. DEC gains in some critical areas, however. POLYCENTER was not gaining significant market share, and DEC has been steadily backing away from being sole source on software products anyway. DEC stands to gain significant revenue from training and integration efforts on behalf of the new product line, and it is in this area that DEC has been concentrating effort recently. DEC is also able to divest itself of an expensive non-performer and, by association with IBM, forms a partnership between two leading vendors to set the new "standard" in systems and network management. It is not clear what effect this announcement has on COSE or the evolution of DME. In the former case, IBM may maintain that while systems management is part of the COSE agreement, there is little networked management implied. IBM may also say that the process is open and can be joined by others, but clearly with IBM (and DEC) as the principal players. The DME model has been late in forming, and it is possible that it will be retained as a framework within which all the principal vendors can sort out their differences, but for now, IBM and DEC are assuming an ambivalent attitude toward it, stressing their own initiative instead. ISSUES FOR HP HP wins in the short run by association, but must make serious strategic decisions about whether to seek a partnership with IBM and DEC or a confrontation. HP can certainly point to its perceived leadership, via the OpenView framework, in the systems/network management arena. More applications are available for OpenView than for NetView/6000 or SunNetManager. OpenView applications can also be made available to NetView/6000 via a simple port to AIX. Whether solutions providers will in fact port these applications to IBM, and even more so, to Alpha, is an open question. For the immediate future, therefore, HP will enjoy a significant edge in ported applications by virtue of its industry-leading position and its inherent association with OpenView. While there are approximately 30,000 nodes running OpenView, most are PCs. This still far surpasses IBM, which has few NetView/6000 sites, and DEC, which has no OSF/1 POLYCENTER sites. In addition, this announcement primarily covers network management. In the system management arena, HP's offering is far more comprehensive than either IBM's or DEC's. It is an important distinction for HP; there is no corresponding suite of products on AIX or Alpha OSF/1 to match HP's OpenView system management tools, nor do either of the vendors have the breadth of ISV system management software that HP enjoys. Hewlett-Packard can therefore treat this announcement as a marketing message with no real substance as yet. One clear result of the announcement is that OpenView, or its NetView variant, gains overall strength as the perceived framework for network management. This will have more direct and immediate impact on other, smaller vendors, including Cabletron and Star Sentry, than on HP. HP may choose to approach IBM/DEC, or be approached by them to join in the process of integrating the (currently) small differences between the two offerings before the initiative gets too far underway. It is an expressed view of a number of Gartner Group analysts that HP participation in this coalition would strengthen it considerably. It is also possible that HP will seek partnerships with other vendors, like Sun, to form a counterbalancing coalition. This would be a potentially strong alliance vis-a-vis the IBM/DEC pairing, based on the number of installed systems, but would also potentially have the effect of creating another "war" that would ultimately serve neither group in the short run as much as it would serve Microsoft. A third possiblity is HP's licensing of the specific NetView products (like SNA connectivity) that it requires, and continuing an independent course for OpenView. Given HP's position in the industry, it can be reasonably certain that third-party developed applications for NetView will be ported to OpenView as well. Gartner Group's early assessment, then, is that IBM has strengthened NetView by extending its reach to the DEC world. It is an announcement that is long on promise and short on immediate impact. Ultimately, HP must respond, but not from a position of weakness. To the contrary, this announcement is an affirmation of HP's leadership and technology, and affords HP OpenView a better opportunity than before to dominate the systems and network management market. This publication is published by under license from Gartner Group, Inc. Reprints of this document are available. Reprint prices are available upon request. Entire contents, Copyright c 1993 Gartner Group, Inc. 56 Top Gallant Road, P.O. Box 10212, Stamford, CT 06904-2212. Telephone: (203) 964-0096. Facsimile: (203) 324-7901. This publication may not be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without prior written permission. All rights reserved.