InformationWeek

May 14, 2001

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MOM's Prepped To Manage The Windows 2000 Party

Microsoft's management software is aimed at making more headway against Unix

By George V. Hulme (ghulme@cmp.com)

More on MOM:

CRN: Microsoft Sets Release Date For MOM (05/08/01)

CRN: Microsoft Will Show Off MOM At N+I (04/27/01)

icrosoft says it wants Windows 2000 to be the most manageable operating system available. To that end, the software company last week made good on its promise to work with infrastructure management software maker NetIQ Corp. to jointly develop management software for Windows 2000 and other servers.

The result of the partnership is Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 (MOM), expected to retail for about $850 per managed processor when it ships next month. The software provides event and performance management for servers running Windows 2000 and NT. The companion Application Management Pack, at about $950 per processor, will help manage nearly all Microsoft server-based applications, including Exchange and SQL Server.

Some Microsoft customers are cautious, however. One says he'll be watching to see how early adopters fare. "Microsoft has hyped things up before they were ready for prime time. I think it's safer to wait until it's been around awhile before we'll give this a try," says one network administrator from a large consumer manufacturing company who asked not to be identified.

By making Windows more manageable, MOM should help Microsoft make further headway against Unix, says Patrick Dryden, an analyst at Illuminata. The market for Windows leapt 31% last year, to $13.9 billion; Unix' market share jumped 14% to $29 billion, IDC estimates. The move also may help Microsoft gain a chunk of the network-systems-management market, which IDC expects to reach $26 billion by 2004.

From a single console, MOM and the Application Management Pack will serve information on the Active Directory service, Internet Information Server, and Exchange and SQL servers. MOM will also identify and provide ways to solve system and application problems, placing it in competition with vendors such as BMC Software Inc. and Tivoli Systems Inc. NetIQ plans to offer extended management packs that provide integrated management with Hewlett-Packard's VantagePoint Operations, Oracle RDBM, Solaris, Tivoli TME, and Unix.

But Microsoft is three years away from being able to replace third-party management software, says analyst Rob Enderle at Giga Information Group.

Still, Microsoft has piqued the interest of Windows 2000 users. Kemper Insurance will deploy Windows 2000 next year, and MOM may be part of that effort, says Mike Gibbs, Kemper's E-commerce and LAN infrastructure services director. Says Gibbs, "It never hurts to have more tools in the toolbox."

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