Micromuse technology to add real-time dashboard and detailed user impact analysis to IBM ITSM portfolio
from CCR2, Issue 3 - 2006
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by Craig Farrell
Chief technology officer, Netcool solutions
IBM Tivoli Software
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In February IBM acquired the company I helped manage, Micromuse, the leading provider of real-time network assurance software. IBM recognizes that IP convergence around voice, video and broadband data will deliver new kinds of services to users across an enterprise network. Micromuse provides IBM with telecommunications expertise and real-time service management solutions, including advanced device, server and network monitoring technology. Together, we’ll be able to address your needs for real-time IT and telecommunications solutions—from service management to service assurance.
Strengthens IBM’s ITSM portfolio
IT Services Management (ITSM) from IBM is all about understanding the pressures that you are under and helping you deal with today’s most common IT challenges: rapid and constant change, financial regulation and business process compliance, architectural complexity, and being asked to do more on the same—or smaller—budget. Micromuse’s flagship Netcool® brand of solutions, which is used to help manage some of the world’s most complex, critical networks and the services delivered across them, can help you address these challenges.
Netcool technology enables end-to-end IT Service Management through real-time management capabilities for all layers of your network, as well as visualization and key performance indicator (KPI) analysis for users—from executives to engineers. Our world-class business service modeling and service level management tools meet the needs of large enterprises, as well as carriers and service providers. In fact, all 20 of the world’s largest telecommunications service providers are already Netcool customers.
Micromuse strengthens IBM’s IT Service Management offerings at every level. Key areas where our products will enhance the IBM ITSM portfolio include:
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Extending IT process management capability to the network |
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Broad network management, discovery and root cause analysis tools |
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Solutions for IP convergence; Triple Play (voice, video and data) |
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Deep network discovery, topology and dependency mapping compatible with IBM’s change and configuration management database (CCMDB) |
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Strategic alignment with ITIL, enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM), Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (CoBIT), ISO1779 and other standards. |
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Monitoring, event correlation, security and business service management |
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Advanced server, network and device management technology
The Netcool brand — like the OMEGAMON and Cyanea brands — brings sophisticated monitoring technology to IBM’s portfolio. As in these other IBM acquisitions, Netcool products will be delivered as part of the IBM Tivoli Software portfolio, packaged separately at first, and then integrated into existing IBM solutions over the next year or two. IBM and Netcool solutions are highly interoperable, which will simplify our integration effort.
We’re looking at which Netcool capabilities can be made available on IBM platforms the fastest, based upon customer requirements and development effort. A transition team with staff from both IBM and Micromuse is developing an integration roadmap to combine the best technology from both portfolios. Based on past acquisition experience, we anticipate smooth upgrades for both Netcool and IBM users and exciting new network assurance and IP convergence products, which merge the management of voice, video and data across a network.
Micromuse has developed several advanced Netcool technologies that can enhance the IBM Tivoli Monitoring and Business Service Management families to provide you with real-time monitoring breadth and scalability, as well as consolidated data aggregation and visualization (see Figure 1). Micromuse technology also brings a broader range of data collection agents, improved event management, real-time monitoring dashboards, enriched business impact analysis and enhanced security event correlation to IBM’s ITSM solutions.
Figure 1: Example of Netcool components integrated into Tivoli Enterprise Portal
Here are some of the Netcool capabilities we are working to bring you:
Monitor more systems: We have a broad range of lightweight high-performance monitoring agents (Netcool Probes) that support Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) V3. We also have data collection agents for systems found in heterogeneous IT infrastructures, such as Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), the BEA WebLogic platform and open-source Apache servers. These agents, called application service monitors (ASMs) and system service monitors (SSMs), can be adapted to feed into the Tivoli Enterprise Portal, and Tivoli monitoring agents can be similarly adapted to feed the Netcool/OMNIbus console.
Enhanced event correlation and automation: We have fault and availability data collectors that can bring data into the IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console (TEC) from third party vendors, such as BMC PATROL and HP OpenView products. In addition to these agent and adaptors, we also bring a large library of probes and monitors for all types of networking equipment. The IBM/Micromuse product integration team’s goal is to gradually combine the scalability and performance of Netcool/OMNIbus and the advanced correlation of TEC into a converged "best of both" event manager with a smooth migration path for both Netcool/OMNIbus and TEC users.
Real-time dashboards: When developing solutions for carrier-class networking industries, we’ve engineered technology to display real-time information to ensure our customers have instantaneous fault and availability information. Our Netcool/Dashboards family provides active dashboards that can be displayed in the Tivoli Enterprise Portal (TEP) . We have dashboards for a number of standard scenarios, in different vertical industries such as finance and banking, Telco and service providers, and defense.
Business impact analysis: Aligning IT and business functions to maximize operational efficiency and improve business continuity requires that you have visibility into the specific business impact of your IT service. Netcool/Impact service impact analysis technology can pull information from external data repositories when triggered by an event.
For example, if there is a problem with a Web server, our solutions can access a customer database to show you exactly which customers are impacted by that specific server failure. This process of event enrichment greatly enhances the value of our fault management solutions, because it provides immediate insight into customer impacts. With adapter for TEC, Tivoli TEC customers will be able to take advantage of the Netcool/Impact technology to perform event enrichment within their existing TEC installation with minimal changes to their current environment.
Join us at GigaWorld next week
GigaWorld Las Vegas, April 3, will serve as the kick off anchor event for the Tivoli/Micromuse launch. IBM will hold an exclusive pre-conference event, free to attendees, with two dedicated sessions: "Take Back Control with IBM IT Service Management", hosted by Al Zollar, General Manager of Tivoli Software; and "Discover How Micromuse Technology Expands and Strengthens IBM IT Service Management", hosted by me and Alan Ganek, Chief Technology Officer of IBM Tivoli Software.
Secure, effective, efficient IT service solutions
The integration of IBM Tivoli solutions and technologies with Micromuse monitoring, correlation and visualization capabilities will provide powerful new operations management products to help you deliver more secure, effective and efficient IT services.
All statements of direction or intent are provided for planning purposes only and are subject to change or withdrawal without notice.
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