Quest Software has been acquiring other management software companies rapidly over the past year or so. This includes companies such as Provision Networks, Vizioncore, ScriptLogic. I recently had a conversation with company representatives to learn more about the strategic plan behind those acquisitions. I must admit that before I had a chance to speak with these folks, I had come to the erroneous conclusion that the plan was “if they’re small, have interesting technology and are vaguely related to management, let’s buy ‘em.” I’ve since learned that they have a plan, it’s just based upon a philosophical approach.
Others in the management software space start with a overarching management framework that is designed to manage everything for everyone everywhere. This, of course, creates an interlocking set of tools that is powerful, but very large and often expensive. Furthermore, this philosophical approach usually doesn’t live up to the promise of managing everything. More typically, the management frameworks manage only a select few components that would be found in a large datacenter. It may manage only Windows-based solutions. It may manage only UNIX/Linux-based solutions. It may manage only mainframe-based solutions.
Quest Software’s appoarch is more along the lines of “embrace, extend and simplify.” Rather than trying to impose its own management framework on its customers, it has carefully examined customer pain points and either developed or aquired technology to make the pain go away. From an analyst’s point of view, this makes it challenging to see what the company is really doing. None of the moving parts have to work together. All they have to do is work with the targeted framework already in use.
As I got to know more about what Quest was doing, I began to appreciate their approach. If a company is using Microsoft’s management framework, Quest’s products just fit right in and make things work a bit better. If a company has selected any one of the major database products, Quest’s products just fit right in and make management tasks easier.
Recently, the company has made a big move into managing virtual resources. Quest is fielding products from Provision Networks and Vizioncore to address the pain points.
What do you think of this approach? Would you prefer a management framework to rule them all (with apologies to T. R. R. Tolkein)? Would you prefer really good point products that play well with other’s frameworks.
