InformationWeek

For the first time, Tivoli will offer its entire suite of management tools as an Internet service, through a new partnership with ASP 2ndWave Inc. Tivoli expects the offering to have its greatest appeal to midsize businesses that don't have the in-house IT expertise to efficiently manage their enterprise systems, networks, storage, and help desks, says Robert Davis, VP and general manager for Tivoli. Typical pricing for the services, which are available now, will range from $20 to $40 per managed location per month, according to 2ndWave.

BMC is launching a program that could ease the concerns of business users worried that ASPs won't be able to deliver on their service-level agreements. In partnership with Insuretrust.com LLC, BMC is offering "E-vailability insurance" to ASPs. The plan is designed to enable ASPs to make restitution to customers who suffer financial damages because of the providers' inability to meet service-level agreements due to denial of service attacks or other events that cause unexpected downtime. To qualify, ASPs must also be certified through BMC's OnSite program, which is designed to ensure customers that providers are deploying their E-businesses on a scalable infrastructure.

"The only way ASPs can differentiate themselves is by cost or quality of service, and many of them are signing service-level agreements but really don't have a lot to back it up," says Wayne Morris, VP of corporate marketing for BMC. "Now they can offer their customers a stronger guarantee, backed up by specific warranties." Available now, premium pricing for the policy will be based on the scope of risk an ASP is willing to accept.

Businesses that opt to keep their storage and network systems management in-house and under one umbrella soon may have an easier time. At last week's PlanetTivoli conference in Philadelphia, Tivoli unveiled a storage area network toolkit for integrating and centralizing storage area network management tasks under Tivoli's NetView console. "They can now streamline management of network devices through the entire infrastructure," says Troy Pladson, VP of strategy, marketing, and business development for Tivoli.

Tivoli is the only vendor that can help companies integrate their SAN management with network and systems management, says Illuminata senior analyst John Webster.

Additionally, Tivoli's Storage Manager 4.1 upgrade now provides automated network backup, tape-resource sharing, and network-free rapid data recovery. Tivoli is working with independent storage vendor EMC Corp. to integrate the software with its Symmetrix storage systems; Storage Manager already supports IBM's Shark storage product.

Kemper Insurance Co. in Long Grove, Ill., uses a number of Tivoli products, including NetView and Storage Manager, to manage its 570 services and 9,000 desktops and notebook computers. In a few weeks, the company will begin deploying a SAN architecture. Michael Gibbs, head of systems engineering, says he likes the fact that Tivoli is working hard at integrating its products across its own line and with other vendors' offerings. "They're making their products easier to deploy and use," he says.

BMC has integration plans of its own. The company last week said it would acquire OptiSystems Solutions, Ltd., for about $70 million, in a deal that's expected to close by early August. The company plans to merge OptiSystems' next generation management suite for SAP R/3 with its own Patrol and Mainview management lines. BMC wouldn't provide details on these plans, but says it will unveil a road map of its integration strategy within the next 30 days.