Tivoli talks to mainframes
Tivoli Systems has a new management application that will be able to receive alerts from IBM mainframes and correlate that with information from distributed client-server networks.
TME 10 Global Enterprise Manager, available in December, includes an applications policy manager and integration services that tie S/390 mainframe environments from IBM running the MVS operating system via NetView to the TME 10 distributed management platform.
The new policy manager will be integrated with the TME Enterprise Console, the central interface for the TME 10 enterprise management platform. Via the applications policy manager, an administrator can use a folder-type interface to check applications as they run on different parts of the network, from a Microsoft Windows NT server and a mainframe to a desktop. All of this is done regardless of the underlying operating system.
The ability to tie the mainframe to distributed client-server management platforms has been a dilemma for many enterprise management platforms. "You really had no way to get a handle on it," Tivoli CEO Frank Moss said.
Tivoli recently launched an effort to integrate TME 10 with Intel's LANDesk desktop management suite. "Now we're pulling the other end of the equation in," Moss said in an interview from London.
Moss said Computer Associates' entry into the market, Unicenter TNG, "makes a good demo," but customers are looking for a simple interface, like the file folder concept within the policy manager, to manage every element of an application on a network.
Since the $750 million acquisition of Tivoli by IBM, a phased approach toward integration of the myriad IBM network management products with the TME 10 systems and applications management products has taken place. Incorporating mainframes into the TME 10 platform is among the final second-phase activities.
"A lot of this is really about making logical linkages between MVS and TME and giving them real value," noted Mark McClain, Tivoli's product manager for deployment and strategy.
The major integration work moving forward is removing any overlapping interfaces between NetView and TME 10 products, and, more importantly, moving all of the underlying services in the software to the common Tivoli Management Framework. That work is expected to be completed by mid-1997.
Pricing and licensing for TME 10 Global Enterprise Manager will be offered as a one-time charge and as extensions to existing S/390 software agreements.