Infrastructure Management Report

Market Analysis

The vendors in this market cover a wide range of management tools and solutions. This is hardly surprising when one considers their varying backgrounds. One group is made up of vendors formerly described as large framework suppliers: BMC Software, Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM Tivoli. Unfortunately, we were unable to include BMC Software in the main body of this Report, as the company was unable to supply us with the information that we required, but a profile of the vendor is included in Section 9, Vendor Profiles, along with ten other vendors.

Computer Associates' Unicenter came out at the top of our scoring chart due to its breadth of product, and the re-design of its former framework architecture. We are, however, disappointed that the company has yet to adopt a business-focused strategy for Unicenter. IBM Tivoli has also recently followed in the rationalisation of its architecture, but we feel requires a more clearly defined marketing strategy. Recently, Hewlett-Packard has also put more impetus behind its OpenView solution, although the absorption of Compaq may lead to confusion in the near to medium term.

SMARTS and Managed Objects also scored well for their business-focused approach. These two companies seem to have led the way in managing the infrastructure for business. Managed Objects' Formula utilises exclusively the underlying technology of other vendors to provide its solutions. Mercury Interactive is unique among the vendors that we considered, in that it addresses the subject as a supplier of system testing tools, and this may be the reason that its Topaz product did not score well.