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The operative word in the world of network management frameworks is marketshare. The major players in the high-end sector --SunConnect's SunNet Manager, Hewlett-Packard's OpenView and IBM's NetView/6000 -- will continue to dominate the market for the next few years, according to the Gartner Group, a Stamford, Conn., market research firm.
All three, however, are only network monitoring frameworks, based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). They lack the end-to-end systems management capabilities required for large corporate networks. "There is no single off-the-shelf solution that a customer can use to manage networks and information systems on an end-to-end basis," said Atul Kapoor, principal at Kaptronix Inc., a Haworth, N.J.-based consulting firm.
This lack of systems management capabilities is a major failing. "Systems management is an area in which we see IS organizations becoming more sensitive," said Rick Villars, director of network management research at International Data Corp. (IDC), a Framingham, Mass., market research firm. "Network management platform vendors are going to put more system management functions on to meet users' needs. They haven't solved the network management problems yet, but systems management is where the perception of pain is right now."
All three of the major network management players are moving to address network management problems by adding systems management functionality, incorporating object-oriented technology and forming partnerships with independent software vendors (ISVs).
"The platforms are evolving to make system and network management possible," said Gordon MacKinney, OpenView program manager in the Ft. Collins, Colo.-based Network and System Management Division of Hewlett-Packard Co., headquartered in Cupertino, Calif. "Our strategy is to support systems and network management."
IBM claims that it already offers system management capabilities. "Most of the other players in the industry are focusing on managing specific hardware elements, which is the SNMP focus, and that's why they're struggling to provide a consistent management framework for network and systems management," said Sanjiv Ahuja, director of enterprise management platforms at IBM's Networking Software Division, located in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
For its part, HP plans to evolve the SNMP platform to offer scalability, data management and distributed intelligence, according to HP's MacKinney. He said scalability is vital because SNMP cannot manage very large networks.
IDC's Villars agrees. "SNMP is a polling-based technology, which works fine...