Tivoli gains design-ins among DB campers - Tivoli Systems' Tivoli Management Environment network management software being incorporated into other vendors' database programs

Software Magazine, Nov, 1994 by Jack Vaughan

Much of the industry's discussions on distributed systems M management have centered on software frameworks that enable users to mix and match tools. Although many harried database and systems administrators are ready to move without necessarily buying into a long-term cross-workplace strategy, assorted database tools vendors have recently embraced emerging framework technology via a series of announcements.

Vendors smell money in the distributed management venue, and they are enhancing their lines via products and alliances. Enough chief information officers are concerned about frameworks to significantly influence the hot relational database management system (RDBMS) market players. The database vendors and independent toolmakers are meeting

MIS requirements for openness by placing a stake within the framework domain. Commonly, the software vendors' partner is Austin, Texas-based Tivoli Systems Inc., purveyor of the Tivoli Management Framework for systems management.

Are Tools Apt?

Activity in client/server computing tools often centers around the relational database. The term "tool" may not be especially apt. "When we used to talk about tools, we meant things like Cobol. When we talk tools now, we mean things like Norton Utilities," said Andrew Filipowski, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Platinum Technology Inc., Oakbrook Terrace, M. And what does Filipowski mean by "utilities?" "Everything you need for the care and feeding of relational databases" he explained.

Platinum is among the vendors making a significant nod to the concept of the management framework. Platinum recently forged a deal to link Platinum's relational database tools with the Tivoli Management Environment (TME). Meanwhile, Informix Software Inc., Menlo Park, Calif., announced that it would license and embed TME within its Informix-OnLine Dynamic Server (An integrated product is scheduled to be available in H2/95.) Last month, Data General Corp., Westborough, Mass., also announced a partnering with Tivoli.

Emerging from a period in which it put major effort into establishing its framework as a standard with the Cambridge, Mass.-based Open Software Foundation (OSF), Tivoli -- clearly maneuvering to be a potential candidate for an initial public stock offering -- finds itself at the apparent center of some significant database toolmakers' plans. Although TME is associated with OSF's bungled Distributed Management Environment (DME), it is uniquely positioned and has many of the trappings of a de facto standard.

Important for Tivoli is the recent introduction of Enterprise SQL Server Manager from Sybase Inc., Emeryville, Calif., which employs the Tivoli framework. The product's goal is to ease the task of both the database administrator and the systems administrator. General availability is scheduled for early 1995. "We will provide technology that solves the hard database administration problems in a way that can integrate with other products that [fit into] the bigger picture," said Berl Hartman, Sybase's vice president, product marketing.

Integration is needed to ensure that, for example, the database administrator does not schedule database backups while the systems administrator is collecting performance statistics, said Hartman.

Naturally, partners are plentiful in this business. Among software management applications companies supporting Enterprise SQL Server Manager are BMC Software Inc., Houston; Compuware Corp., Farmington Hills, Mich.; and Landmark Systems Corp., Vienna, Va.

Oracle Alliances

In other database management activity, Unix RDBMS leader Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, Calif., recently announced the expansion of its Systems Management Tools Initiative (SMTI). Now included are management software providers such as Legent Corp., Herndon, Va.; Legato Systems Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.; BGS Systems Inc., Waltham, Mass.; and others. BMC, Compuware, Platinum Technology and Tivoli are also among SMTI's members. Oracle is evaluating future moves with Tivoli.

The rise of TME is not without its detractors within the ranks of competitors. Other distributed management software pioneers like BMC, with Patrol, and Compuware, with EcoTools, have often pro own underlying framework software, but have focused more on the database management applications that are troubling the industry Some liken TME to OSF's emerging Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) -- well-conceived and useful, but not for everyone. "We are not selling high-level strategies," explained John Schroeder, product and development manager of Compuware's

EcoSystems Division. "With TME, you buy a kit and you must code to [Tivoli's] products." Schroeder asks: "Does MIS have the time, talent and interest in writing to TME?" And, he notes the openness of his own application programming interfaces (APIs). Still, it would appear less difficult for independent software vendors (ISVs) to work with developer kits than for MIS.

From an historical perspective, said Ching-Fa Hwang, co-founder of Compuware's EcoSystems Division, "frameworks were designed mostly from an administrator's point of view They didn't include the event management that was needed." Notably, event management has been one of Tivoli's more recent additions to TME. For its part, Compuware added Sybase SQL Server support with its recent EcoTools Version 2.1 product, as well as a graphical agent builder and improved process monitoring.