OSF Announcment Questions and Answers 1. What happened to the OSF-submission of HP? HP technologies that were selected by OSF are the OpenView Network Management Server (NMS), Network License Server (NetLS) and Software Distribution Utilities (SDU) were selected as componemts of DME. IBM, an important HP partner is the OSF RFT submission, has the Data Engine and System Resource Controller (SRC) selected by OSF. There were a number of other technologies that HP submitted but was not selected by OSF. Taskbroker, Glance Plus and OmniBack have been excluded from the scope of the RFT. OpenSpool was excluded, because OSF decided on enabling technologies only. 2. How did HP's partnering efforts help win the DME? HP and IBM teamed up soon after OSF announced the DME RFT. HP and IBM had separate technologies for the RFT that was complementary to each other and met a large portion of the RFT. HP and IBM began working with other organizations to help assist OSF in selecting the best-in-class technology. We worked with Tivoli Systems, Groupe Bull, NCR, and Siemans Nixdorf Informationssystems to name a few. The efforts put forth by HP and IBM resulted in a selection made by OSF that is both innovative and meets industry standards. 3. HP is an OSF founding member and has been a technology supplier to OSF for three of the four OSF RFTs (Motif, DCE, DME). Isn't OSF biased towards their founding memebers in their decisions for OSF RFT technology suppliers? HP has been fortunate in being selected by OSF for the three OSF RFTs. During each of these RFTs, OSF spends a great deal of time understanding the technical background of the product. It sometimes can be a difficult experience having to defend the technical decisions made for a specific product. The OSF lab team does have a very difficult situation. The OSF members do not have to choose/purchase the technology chosen by OSF. Therefore, the lab team must choose the best technical solution so that the majority of OSF members use the products that OSF delivers. The fact that the technologies OSF is delivering have been successful indicates that their efforts and choices have been correct. 4. What is the benefit of the DME selection for HP ? With the selection of HP OpenView as the core of DME, HP's benefits are the early availibility of DME-compliant products allow HP to capture on time-to-market and distribution of HP-technology through OSF channel allows HP to generate incremental business. More importantly to HP, what is the benefit of the DME selection for customers? The combined efforts of all the technology suppliers for DME will produce a better distributed computing environment based on industry standards. It will allow customers to manage their distributed environments like their stand alone systems today. It will help reduce costs or increase productivity of their employees. Also, the customers do not have to wait until tomorrow for DME solutions. HP OpenView family of products provide solutions to customers management problems today. With the selection of OpenView as the core of the DME technology and with the current solutions now offered, HP OpenView is the right strategic choice today. 5. You have discussed solutions, what solutions are available from HP for Network and/or Systems Management? HP has solutions for backup/restore, network load balancing, performance management, output spolling, software distribution and installation, software licensing, internet management and network element management. We also solutions from other solution providers (i.e. DECNet Manager, NetView Gateway) We are planning a large solution push for OpenView in the near future. 6. What is the roadmap to DME compliance? As you can tell by the OSF DME announcment, HP provides a large portion of the technologies to DME. HP is already delivering much of the technology in the DME. HP is also close to completing the enhancements to the current products for delivery. In 1992, HP will have a set of products that will be the first to be compliant with the OSF DME. The OSF selected technologies and associated products are: NetLS - currently shipping on HP-UX Software Distribution Utilities (SDU) - enhancements to shipping product on HP-UX HP Network Management Server - 3.0 product will be shipping in '92. 7. What is the role of DME in the network and system management world? DME will be the prerequisite for management of Open Systems. Although the DME was intended to be the management solution for OSF technologies (Motif, OSF/1, and DCE), we have found that many solution providers are looking for a strategic management platform to manage all types of objects outside of OSF technologies. These include management of network elements (bridges, hubs, routers), WAN devices, and disc drives to name a few others. 8. Will DME/OpenView be ported to all HP platforms (Domain, 3000, S800, S700)? HP OpenView will, in the future, be able to manage a 3000. We are currently investigating if we need to have OpenView Management Server ported to the 3000. It is currently available on the HP 9000 computers 9. Last year, HP announced a relationship with Computer Associates to port their existing management solutions to your multiuser UNIX (S800) machines. How does winning the DME effect this CA relationship? At the time of the announcement, HP very clearly offered the strategy for OpenView and the CA products. It is our intent to have OpenView as the management framework for HP's multiuser systems. We have discussed with CA the use of the OpenView framework for their solutions. We have nothing further to announce at this time. Needless to say, we will continue to work with CA to deliver the best solution for HP customers. 10. OMG and DME (OpenView and NewWave)? DME's strategic intent is to provide resource management for networks and systems in the open systems environment. OMG's strategic intent is to provide application management (ie. for distributed data and object management). The DME framework will support multiple object model types. Initially this includes Tivolli object methods and the IBM data engine. In the future OMG's object methods can also be integrated on top of the DME framwework. It is HP's belief that multiple object methods will exist in the industry not just one. There currently is overlap between OMG and DME and HP is committed to help provide assistance to reduce the overlap and provide maximum value to the customer. HP feels that by this complementry positioning and integration of OMG and DME that the customer will recieve information management!! 11. DCE took 16 months from announcement to general availability. Will DME take that long? OSF would be a better group to answer this question. There probably will be some effort required to integrate the different technologies from different vendors. HP will be able to offer products much sooner and will be based on the technology HP offered to OSF. 12. When can I buy the product you will deliver to OSF (OpenView 3.0)? What is the price? We are currently in the middle of developing the Network Management Server 3.0 product. This is what OSF DME is based on. We expect delivery of NMS 3.0 to be in 1H92. This will be the first commercially available framework that is based on the DME selected APIs. It is still to early to provide pricing information at this time. 13. How does the OpenView win with DME affect OpenView/DOS? DME is relatively unclear with respect to how it will integrate with pre-existing manager stations such as those based upon OpenView/DOS. HP, however, is implementing a strategy of cooperating hierarchical manager stations which we call "Manager Of Managers", or MoM. The MoM relationship means that manager stations can manage small domains of equipment and systems, and also be controlled and integrated with managers stations which have a view of the entire corporate internetwork. This provides multiple points of control and higher network reliability via redundancy. Today HP offers SNMP on both OpenView DOS and Unix as a means of allowing cooperating manager applications to communicate. This is the first stage in increasing integration between the two platforms. As OpenView Unix becomes DME compliant, SNMP will continue to be supported. As the DME standard takes shape, we will also examine other communication mechanisms which will allow close integration of OpenView/DOS and DME. There are other forms of integration as well which we are investigating, including map conversion and data base access. 14. Last spring, HP announced an agreement with NCR to work on the OSF DME submittal. What happened to NCR in this RFT? Did the AT&T takeover have any effect? HP along with a large number of OSF members strongly suggested to OSF that they needed to over a management solution for the large installed base of PCs and PC LANs. When HP looked at the technology offered to OSF, NCR's End Node Manager provided a strong solution for managing PCs and PC LANs. HP and NCR agreed to work together to offer this solution to OSF. OSF needs to answer why NCR was not included in this announcement. The AT&T purchase of NCR did not influence our efforts with this nor do we believe that it influenced NCR attempt to get their technology accepted by OSF. WE still feel strongly that OSF needs a solution for PC management. 15. What is the Relationship Between HP and Gradient? How Is/Was Gradient Involved with NetLS? Why is HP Partnering with Gradient on NetLS? As the LOI states, Gradient and HP worked together on the submission of NetLS to the OSF. We are also working together on other cooperative activities with NetLS. Gradient was a full partner on all NetLS submission activities. HP chose to work with Gradient because of their strength in the area of distributed computing. The staff has significant experience in the computer industry and brings expertise in the distributed, multi-vendor application development. 16. How Does NetLS Compare to Other Licensing Systems Submitted? We feel that NetLS presented a very strong option for DME in the area of software licensing. It was the only technology that combines a proven product/track record, with major backing in the industry, with compatibility on OSF standards (Motif and NCS/DCE). Also, NetLS Is the only licensing system originally architected to support and operate in distributed computing environments, and used NCS from its inception. We believe, as does the OSF, that the structure and capabilities of NetLS most closely address the needs of the marketplace. 17. What is the availability of Software Distribution Utilities (SDU) from HP? When will HP have the DME 1.0 version of Software Distribution Utilities (SDU) available? SDU is based on the software management tools available as part of the HP-UX operating system. The version submitted to the DME RFT will be available on HP's first OSF/1 product. 18. What is the cost of Software Distribution Utilities (SDU) ? Product structure and pricing has not been set at this point. 19. How similar/different are the current HP-UX tools to/from SDU? SDU is an enhanced version of the tools currently being shipped with our HP-UX product. Major enhancements include a Motif user interface and single point administration for the DCE enviroment. 20. What are the main strengths of this solution? (or "Why did OSF select it?) This is a complete solution from a number perspectives * Addresses software vendors, large and small users * Covers OS and application software * Easy to use (Motif) and highly flexible * Single-point administration 21. What are the main components of the SDU? SDU includes a specification of a portable logical media format, plus utilities to: Build media physical media (tapes, CD-ROMS, floppies) and network servers in this format. Build network servers from physical media. Install software from physical media or network servers. List the software installed on a system or available on a physical media or network server. Remove (or deinstall) software from a system or a network server. 22. Do you provide deinstall? If so, can you regress back to the previous install level? Yes, SDU supports deinstall. Regression back to the previous install level is not supported directly, but can be achieved by reinstalling the previous level after the deinstallation. 23. Do you support multiple versions of the software? Yes. A single media or network server can have different newer and older versions of the same software, or versions to run on different platforms. By default the correct version for a given target system is automatically selected. 24. Does software installation work with NetLS? NetLS, like other license systems, manages access to software at execution time, and does not directly play a role in the installation or physical distribution of the software. Thus software installation "works with" NetLS by doing nothing. 25. How integrated is SDU with other portions of the DME? Does SDU work with the other DME components? SDU is currently integrated with the DME (OpenView Windows) user interface level. Target systems for software installation can be selected from a network map. We are committed to utilize other DME and DCE technologies with our SDU as appropriate and are working with the various selected technologies to work out a viable plan and schedule for further integration. 26. How can your submission be customized? Extended? In many ways. Each software product that is installed or distributed can include customization scripts to be run before and after it is installed and before it is deinstalled. This gives considerable flexibility.