HP Teams With Microsoft to Establish Enterprise Systems Management Competency Centre

Business Wire, March 22, 2000

High Tech Writers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 22, 2000

HP OpenView VantagePoint to Manage Microsoft Competency Centre

to Better Facilitate End-to-end Systems Management from

Within Windows 2000 Platforms

Hewlett-Packard Company today announced an agreement to team with Microsoft(R) Corp. to establish an Enterprise Systems Management Competency Centre (ESMCC). The ESMCC will deploy HP OpenView VantagePoint to manage its showcase and will facilitate HP and Microsoft customer visits to demonstrate enterprise systems-management solutions, processes and procedures. The deliverables produced by the ESMCC will allow joint customers in target industries specific capabilities to undertake end-to-end systems-management projects.

The ESMCC, hosted by Microsoft Research (Cambridge, UK) and Microsoft Consulting Services, will focus on systems-management-related research and the development of best-practice operational and systems-management processes to effectively manage complex cross-platform environments. HP OpenView VantagePoint, a new family of business-centric IT management solutions for the electronic enterprise, administers business-critical services through three types of intelligence: business-driven intelligence for immediate and visible business impact, instant intelligence for fast results, and active intelligence for adaptive availability.

VantagePoint for Windows(R), a component of the new family, is the first enterprise-class, heterogeneous management solution to fully comply with design standards for Microsoft Windows and the first solution to take full advantage of the extensive capabilities of Windows 2000, including the powerful Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) architecture. VantagePoint for Windows is designed to provide sophisticated enterprise performance and operations management from within Microsoft Windows 2000 environments across the electronic enterprise. The new solution is designed to lower the skill barrier, accelerate deployment and ensure compatibility with other management solutions.

HP OpenView VantagePoint enables Microsoft's ESMCC to better facilitate and undertake end-to-end systems-management projects from within Windows 2000 platforms. HP OpenView VantagePoint's innovative Windows-based architecture allows Microsoft to demonstrate the integration of Microsoft products within a cross-platform enterprise systems-management environment.

The ESMCC helps Microsoft product teams improve the increased manageability of the Microsoft platform, particularly through collaboration with key alliance industry partners. A board of customers is in place to identify best practices and deliverables, enabling Microsoft to better deploy and establish enterprise management solutions for Windows 2000 and Windows NT(R) environments.

"We are delighted to be working with HP, one of our strategic partners, to deliver mission-critical enterprise solutions to customers by embracing the disciplines of people and process management coupled with leading-edge Microsoft and HP services and technology," said Alistair Baker, director of Microsoft Consulting Services, Microsoft United Kingdom. "The Enterprise Systems Management Competency Centre demonstrates effective management of such environments and will contribute to the Microsoft Operations Framework, which characterizes best practices in running highly available Windows NT Server- and Windows 2000 Server-based systems."

"Working with Microsoft and its Enterprise Systems Management Competency Centre is an ideal opportunity for HP to demonstrate the core strength of its new enterprise management solution for Windows," said Juergen Rottler, acting general manager of HP's OpenView Software Business Unit. "HP OpenView VantagePoint's flexible and powerful management model allows customers to easily adapt to their business environments, helping to effectively manage critical services."

About HP OpenView

HP is one of the world's largest providers of integrated management solutions for service providers, the electronic enterprise and the mid-sized enterprise. HP OpenView solutions are at work in more than 120,000 multivendor distributed computing environments worldwide. Together with offerings from more than 200 partners, HP OpenView offers a complete portfolio of services and management solutions on all major platforms.

Information about HP OpenView and its solutions can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.openview.hp.com.

About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company -- a leading global provider of computing and imaging solutions and services for business and home -- is focused on capitalizing on the opportunities of the Internet and the proliferation of electronic services.

HP plans to spin off Agilent Technologies and distribute its shares to HP shareowners by mid-calendar year 2000. Agilent consists of HP's test and measurement, semiconductor products, chemical analysis and healthcare solutions businesses, and has leading positions in multiple market segments.

HP has 85,400 employees worldwide and had total revenue from continuing operations of $42.4 billion in its 1999 fiscal year. Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.