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MARKET BACKGROUNDER
From OpenView
to Open SourceFrom OpenView to Open Source
"Open source software is a INTRODUCTIONcatalyst that will restructure IT teams have long recognized that an enterprise-class IT management system is abso-the industry, producing higher- lutely essential, especially given the mission-critical nature of most corporate IT net-works. Yet for many years, IT executives resigned themselves to a frustrating reality: In quality software at lower cost." order to fulfill their need for robust IT monitoring and management functionality, they had - Gartner Research, no alternative but to use a proprietary solution-even though these commercial platforms (such as HP OpenView and IBM Tivoli) have been widely criticized as being expensive, "Positions 2005: overly complex, and difficult to deploy and manage. Open Source Solutions Will Restructure the Today that picture is changing rapidly. While the need for an enterprise-class IT manage-ment solution is more acute than ever, today's IT teams now have a dramatically expanded Software Industry", set of options to meet this critical need. The change has come in the form of open source February 23, 2005 IT management solutions, which have rapidly matured to a level of robust functionality and reliability, much like Apache's explosive rise to dominance in web servers. In fact, in an effort to cut costs and simplify their IT management systems, companies like Cingular Wireless, TimeWarner Cable, Siemens, and TicketMaster have already embraced and now rely on open source IT management products. Successful adoption by high profile firms such as these provides concrete evidence that IT teams now have a viable and mar-ket-tested open source alternative to closed commercial systems. " .If I continue my Tivoli license, I'm looking at about a $1.5 million- IT decision-makers now have an opportunity to avoid the bitter pill of high cost, slow a-year contract. I can probably get deployment, and complex management which typically comes with the territory in a com-mercial monitoring system. Instead, companies are transitioning in large numbers to away with 80 percent of what Tivoli open source IT management systems that deliver comparable functionality combined does; we can just develop our own with greater technical agility, faster deployment, and far more management simplicity-applications to do the other 20 all at a fraction of the cost of proprietary products. percent."
- IT executive of a COMMERCIAL TOOLS COMPLAINT: FUNCTIONALITY OVERKILLmultinational biotech One of the core criticisms associated with proprietary IT management tools is functional-company, 2005 ity overkill. The four vendors that now collectively control more than 60 percent of the market (BMC, Computer Associates, HP, and IBM) were all designed, first and foremost, for the upper echelon of the Fortune 100. The result, according to many users, is an over-load of capabilities and features that the majority of companies do not want or need. Many Global 2000 firms now pay license costs for IT management software that reach seven figures. Deployment and system administration of these proprietary systems is more expensive than that, typically costing five to eight times the initial software licensing fee.
A typical complaint of IT teams using commercial IT management tools is the inherent difficulty in installing and configuring these proprietary systems. Getting a product such as HP OpenView or IBM Tivoli configured and deployed often takes months, even years in many cases. Once the system is installed, the closed nature of the technology and the costly investment in training and consulting result in rigid vendor lock-in scenarios. As every IT veteran knows, configuring and deploying an IT management system is never a one-time effort. Corporate networks are constantly changing in dynamic ways, which forces IT teams to maintain deep expertise in proprietary systems as their networks expand-or hire consultants on a semi-permanent basis.
Another lament concerning commercial tools is that too often they are either over deployed-resulting in burdensome maintenance-or they're under-deployed, resulting in wasteful shelf ware: From OpenView to Open Source
COMPANIES USING The over-deployment dilemmaOPEN SOURCE IT This common scenario occurs when companies succumb to the temptation to turn every-MANAGEMENT TOOLS thing on. Unfortunately, aside fr... [download for more]
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