InformationWeek

One of SiteAngel 2000's most attractive features, says Carmelo Lisciotto, director of system operations for online auctioneer Ubid.com Inc., is its ability to simulate a customer's activity on a Web site. "It enables us to mimic a user's experience," says Lisciotto, who also uses SiteAngel 2000 to monitor Ubid.com's Web-site performance every 15 minutes. SiteAngel can determine how rapidly a Web site is responding to requests without the use of agents. It also records, plays back, and re-records Web transactions containing multiple requests from within a browser, Evity executives say.

Steve Foote, president and CEO of research firm Enswers.com Inc., says the acquisition moves BMC toward tighter integration of Web-site performance management with its traditional network systems-management offerings (see story, "BMC Rounds Out Its Line For E-Business"). "So far, they've done a better job of interoperability than Computer Associates or Tivoli," he says.

Max Watson, BMC's chairman, president, and CEO, says the ease-of-use of SiteAngel 2000 was the deciding factor for the acquisition. "The Internet is about speed, and with SiteAngel, there's no software, nothing gets installed. It's as easy as it gets," he says.

According to Watson, BMC will integrate SiteAngel into its Patrol performance-management software. By September, when that integration is complete, the blend will allow real-time monitoring all the way from the customer experience to the enterprise's back office. And that, he says, will give BMC customers the information and comprehension of the inner workings of their networks to have true "end-to-end holistic management."