HP puts application management into hybrid realm
HP has introduced version 9.0 of its Business Service Management application management software, designed to work across physical and virtual systems in both cloud and internal IT environments.
On Tuesday, the tech giant announced the update, which it said is meant to help customers manage services in 'hybrid' setups that span these different environments. The suite includes Business Availability Center (BAC) 9.0, Operations Manager 9.0 and Network Management Center 9.0.
The updated suite uses algorithms and a rules engine to build a database of events as they occur, according to Rob Dalzell, HP's UK sales solution manager for Business Service Management (BSM).
"Typically, businesses have people monitoring systems, with a stack of red lights over a screen, and they have to correlate the data," said Dalzell. "BSM 9.0 creates a runtime database with dynamic services. If the business is in a virtual environment, BSM has got the advanced capability of capturing a runtime view of the service."
Dalzell said that the "service map" that is created allows businesses to monitor events and respond based on business priorities.
BSM 9.0 is the first version of the software to have a single management console, Dalzell added. The console has a detailed operations view and an IT management view that aggregates different data.
The software can be set up to provide each user with a customised view of services operations that can be delivered via a range of devices and interfaces, including mobile phones.
The new version of Network Management Center brings together virtualisation servers, physical networks and public cloud services into one view. The software can pick up performance failures and allow IT managers to pinpoint whether outages are due to internal systems failures or are the fault of external providers. This allows IT professionals to quickly pull up service providers if they have failed to deliver on service-level agreements (SLAs), according to Dalzell.
The Business Service Management 9.0 suite will be available in the UK on 1 August, HP said.
Also on Tuesday, the company announced increments to its Solution Management Services, providing more support for third-party products, among other tweaks.
The BAC Anywhere service has added support for internal corporate systems alongside the existing support for software-as-a-service (SaaS). BAC Anywhere, available now, allows companies to access a single console from any location in order to oversee their external web applications. The console can "see through firewalls", according to Richard Foden, HP's software and solutions UK marketing director, and does not have to be used from within an organisation's network.
Alongside the BAC updates, HP introduced Test Data Management software for application testing, scheduled for release on 1 July.