ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Application Development

IBM's Tivoli vows to make management simpler

By Peter Judge, ZDNet.co.uk, 10 April, 2002 07:32

Daily Newsletters

Sign up to ZDNet UK's daily newsletter.

Topics

IBM, HP, OpenView, Tivoli, System management, storage management

NEWS
After a drubbing from the hands of the analysts, IBM has given its Tivoli systems management division a makeover. Several new products, some rebranding and a simpler approach to bundling are all aimed at making the much-criticised management software better value for users. The move, announced on Tuesday, comes in response to industry moves towards cheaper system management products that are less labour-intensive to use and offer quicker returns on investment. "Tivoli used to have the largest toolkit in the industry, with the approach that we manage anything anywhere," said Bob Madey, vice president of performance and availability products at Tivoli. However, analysts have criticised the company, with Gartner Group accusing it of "arrogance, poor infrastructure, code unreliability and lack of customer focus." On top of this, sales have been sliding since late 1999. Under the new "Business Impact Management" slogan, Tivoli is responding to these criticisms. It now claims to focus more on business impact than managing components -- but this is pretty much a standard mantra in the industry. The industry will watch closely to see how that is actually delivered. From now on, Tivoli functions will be sold in bigger pieces, built on a few core technologies that will be given away free. The various bundling and repackaging parts of the announcement seem to comprise subtle ways to reduce the price of Tivoli to users. Long-criticised for the level of service and staffing it requires, the products are being re-tooled to install quickly, reducing staff and services costs. "Most products should install within 45 minutes," said Milko van Duijl, vice president for Tivoli software, EMEA, admitting that some previous products took a week or more to get working. Despite criticism that IBM has used Tivoli to draw services money from customers, IBM staff insisted that the promise of a newer, easier Tivoli was not a worry to its services division. "This is actually an opportunity to build total business for IBM Global Services," asserted David Stokes, vice president for the IBM Software Group, EMEA. The IBM services group sat on the panel that approved the changes, and allocated the resources for the Tivoli makeover, said Madey: "They saw this as nothing but upside." Tivoli has also been brought under the company's Passport Advantage corporate discount scheme for the first time, so that users buying Lotus, Websphere or other IBM products can earn discounts on Tivoli products -- though Madey was unable specify how big a discount could be achieved at the launch. IBM will also give away for free some of the key infrastructure, shared between management applications. Tivoli Enterprise Data Warehouse, a DB2 database for management information and IBM Directory Server 4.1, an LDAP directory that manages user identities for security purposes were both announced today, and are offered free to Tivoli customers. The other shared components are a common user interface and shared Web infrastructure from WebSphere. Another free piece of software is the privacy wizard, which helps organisations define privacy policies. Tivoli Enterprise Console (TEC) -- the application management front end within Tivoli -- has been integrated with NetView, IBM's network management product. "This puts system, application and network management in one space," said Madey. "NetView is included in the base price, $40,000, for TEC.@ Within network management, Tivoli now has a Switch Analyzer product designed for auto-discovery and management of network devices at layer two. This will come up against products within HP's OpenView, and third party products from the likes of Micromuse and Smarts. Finally, IBM's Disaster Recovery and Data Protection products are being bundled together in Tivoli Storage Manager 5.1 (enterprise edition). IBM's storage division will keep hold of the Storage Tank virtualisation product, said Madey, but other aspects of storage management are firmly inside Tivoli. "With its brand tarnished by years of abuse, Tivoli has lost its best-of-breed product status in all areas except storage management," warned Gartner Group in late 2001. By tying it in more closely with successful parts of the company, it may be able to reverse that.
More enterprise IT news in ZDNet UK's Tech Update Channel.

For a weekly round-up of the enterprise IT news, sign up for the Tech Update newsletter. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Related stories

HP recycles old tech for new data centres

Perens: Linux could learn from Apple

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

  • Login

Will not be displayed with your comment

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

JCB33

How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...

3 hours ago by JCB33 on ACTA stumbles in Germany
Moley

@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...

5 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint
greycynic

The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel. The first bug that I found was applying the median...

5 hours ago by greycynic on Ten flawed products that derail productivity
GrueMaster

Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...

7 hours ago by GrueMaster on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint
Frederick Wrigley

I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...

8 hours ago by Frederick Wrigley via Facebook on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint
bdantas

Excellent article. One small correction, though--although a fresh installation of Linux Mint 12 will, indeed, provide the user with a version of...

8 hours ago by bdantas on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint
Alan Ralph

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

9 hours ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material
Alan Ralph

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

9 hours ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material
Moley

For Gnome 2 die-hards, it is possible to add icons to the bottom panel (or top top panel, if you prefer) which provide the exact Gnome 2...

10 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint
ramwellian

Your comments would seem pretty naive and immature. Your 'solution' appears to be, "gee, let's all just give in to the hackers and give them...

10 hours ago by ramwellian on Cloud computing security: no more oxymoron?
BugStalker

"Interesting thought ... If you installed Win7 as a dual boot on a machine that previously only had Linux, and it wrecked your Linux installation,...

10 hours ago by BugStalker on Windows 7 Declares War on GRUB
whs001

This is an excellent summary of Ubuntu and Mint and the interface differences between them. Most such articles take a very partisan position for...

10 hours ago by whs001 on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint
Moley

@ewallace. Not so clear. Anyone can obtain the text, for example from here http://www.ustr.gov/webfm_send/2379. I support ACTA so long as it and...

11 hours ago by Moley on ACTA: Facts, misconceptions and questions
45283

I think WinRT is fantastic. I just wish it was an option for people that didn't want to go through Microsoft's App Store with its attendant...

14 hours ago by 45283 on Why Windows 8 needs architectural hygiene for WOA
Burn-IT

Nine people? £30m? Who's back pocket is that lot going in? And IF they say it is for new buildings, what about all the ones the government has...

15 hours ago by Burn-IT on Police set to launch three £30m e-crime hubs
ewallace

Just to be clear, nobody knows what is in the text of ACTA, here is a photograph of the text of ACTA http://twitpic.com/8h9iju as submitted to the...

15 hours ago by ewallace on ACTA: Facts, misconceptions and questions
fgvrg56

Unfortunately main issue is that ASUS is refusing to accept that they make some mistake on this version of asus Transformer prime. 1 - GPS sensor...

16 hours ago by fgvrg56 on Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime Wi-Fi & GPS problems?
Ben Woods

@Marcus A fair question. Just talked with Archos which said it was working on an announcement for next week....

17 hours ago by Ben Woods on Archos confirms G9 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule
Marcus Karlsson

Any update on this, considering the claimed "first week of February"?

18 hours ago by Marcus Karlsson via Facebook on Archos confirms G9 Ice Cream Sandwich update schedule
apexwm

Bill Goodrich : Just as al_langevin pointed out, with Windows Server 2008 there is no Services for Macintosh anymore. It's gone, not available....

1 day ago by apexwm on Windows Server 2008 drops the ball for Mac compatibility

Latest in Application Development

Perens: Linux could learn from Apple

Featured white papers

10 safety tips for business in 2012

Symantec.cloud

10 safety tips for business in 2012

From cloud computing to remote working, your business should consider these ways to keep your business secure as traditional IT... Read more

Deliver easy email search, storage and retrieval systems

Symantec.cloud

Deliver easy email search, storage and retrieval systems

Are you storing up trouble? There is a better way to manage corporate email storage on every level, for every size and type of... Read more

Defining your data demands in simple steps

Symantec.cloud

Defining your data demands in simple steps

Data growth provides vital resources for your business, and you can manage its enormity through some simple... Read more

Inside ZDNet UK

A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

2012 Predictions: VCE FastPath, VI SAN Probe & Hadoop

2012 Predictions: VCE FastPath, VI SAN Probe & Hadoop

BlackBerry Bold 9790

BlackBerry Bold 9790

Case study: How cloud enables growth

Case study: How cloud enables growth

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10P Review

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10P Review

BT's archive: Pictures from the vault

BT's archive: Pictures from the vault