Managing a Systems Management Merger

By Alan E. Hodel

"IBM and Tivoli can provide an unmatched line of systems management solutions that are open, easy to customize, and scale from small departments to the largest global enterprises." - Lou Gerstner, IBM CEO

"Demand for distributed systems management products is exploding." - Frank Moss, Tivoli CEO

So said IBM's and Tivoli's CEOs about their merger earlier this year. The following article is reprinted from IBM's SQ Magazine and describes the benefits of this merger to the technology industry. "With the IBM/Tivoli merger, our customers will be able to look to one company to provide systems management solutions from the desktop, to the host, to the Internet," says John M. Thompson, IBM's top software executive. "We'll do it across all major vendors' platforms and at all levels of software, whether it's operating systems or databases or applications. And we'll provide the professional services needed to support customers around the world."

That's how Thompson, IBM senior vice president and software group executive, sums up the impact of a $743 million deal between IBM and Tivoli Systems Inc. that's putting in place a family of offerings that are the industry's most comprehensive open systems management solutions for network-centric computing.

IBM's merger with Austin, TX-based Tivoli combines advanced, object-oriented technology from Tivoli with IBM's industry-leading host-based systems management products and an unparalleled global sales, service, and support operation. Tivoli is a leading provider of systems management software and services that helps users reduce the cost and complexity of managing distributed client/server networks of personal computers and workstations.

"IBM and Tivoli can provide an unmatched line of systems management solutions and services that are open, easy to customize, and scale from small departments to the largest global enterprises," says Lou Gerstner, IBM chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). "The merger greatly strengthens our position in the emerging network-centric computing opportunity."

Systems management software helps companies control their increasingly complex networks of PCs, servers, workstations, host computers, and the applications that run on them. Key functions performed by the software include network management, performance monitoring, problem determination, and administrative tasks such as new user authorization and software distribution.

"Our customers want the flexibility of choice that's offered by open systems," says Thompson. "IBM's success in this market is based on providing customers with the ability to manage very diverse environments composed of many different vendors' products, and doing it in a simple way."

"Demand for distributed systems management products is exploding," says Tivoli CEO Frank Moss, who will lead the combined company's systems management efforts. "Customers are enthusiastically adopting the Tivoli Management Environment. With IBM's global reach and complementary products for hosts and networks, this merger represents a terrific opportunity for our customers."

The Tivoli Management Environment (TME) set of systems and management applications provides a broad range of easy-to-use, automated systems management and administrative tools that simplify the management of widely dispersed UNIX and PC clients and servers. TME is built on object technology, and because it's open, it runs on a wide range of industry platforms such as Sun, HP, and Windows NT. Tivoli also works with major application and database products such as SAP, PowerBuilder, Oracle, Informix, and Sybase.

IBM's flagship SystemView Series systems management product line provides extensive network control functions for managing host-based, UNIX, and PC systems.

"If you write down a list of what TME provides and then another list of all the things that SystemView provides," says Thompson, "there is very, very little overlap." Thompson points to IBM's NetView offerings as an example.

"NetView is an operations piece of software, running down to the network level," Thompson says, "much like OpenView or other operational platforms do. TME sits above that level, taking information that comes out of the network, turning it into a single interface for administrators to manage the entire network.

"So NetView does not change," Thompson stresses. "We will continue to invest in it as we go forward, and it [NetView] becomes a very important base that will integrate tightly with TME."

According to Moss, the merger will "cross fertilize" IBM technologies like NetView with Tivoli's TME. "We'll also look at how a common platform, if it proves desirable, could be created out of the two," Moss adds.

"Our customers tell us effective systems management is critical to their success, as they increasingly rely on distributed client/server and network-centric computing to run their businesses," says Thompson. "They need to automate systems operational control with sophisticated tools to reduce the cost of managing their information systems."

Citing industry analysts who estimate the cost of managing a distributed or network-centric environment is triple the cost of managing a host environment, Thompson says: "Combining our technologies will help our mutual customers simplify and reduce the cost of managing their systems, networks, and applications."

Good Business Sense
"The merger of IBM and Tivoli makes good business sense for IBM, for Tivoli, and for all our customers," says Thompson. "Tivoli gets the full advantage of IBM's global reach and the broad functionality of our enterprise management solutions. IBM takes a dramatic step forward with distributed systems management solutions on multiple platforms, including the Internet. And customers worldwide can take advantage of an end-to-end, integrated line of systems management products and solutions that are open, easy to customize, scalable from small departments to large enterprises, and available on multiple industry platforms."

According to Moss: "Our objective is to create instant, decisive leadership in the management of network-centric computing on a global scale. Tivoli was founded with a single-minded mission of solving the systems management puzzle - the last great barrier for the widespread adoption of networked and client/server computing. This merger is designed to gain the scale required to propel Tivoli and IBM to worldwide leadership in the shortest possible time."

"Now is the right time," adds Moss, "and this merger is the right move."