Network administrators who rely on traditional Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)-based network and systems management tools to monitor distributed network devices are at an inherent disadvantage when such in-band tools are used to keep tabs on remote network devices. That’s because by their very nature SNMP-based tools can’t detect problems unless the devices they monitor are readily available on the network. When remote devices aren’t available, the only remedy in an SNMP-based world is often to physically dispatch a network administrator to the remote site to identify the problem.

Into this remote management landscape steps Uplogix Inc., an Austin, Texas-based provider of remote management appliances. This week, Uplogix announced the release of Uplogix 430, an integrated monitoring appliance designed to manage IP-based network devices remotely. The product combines the access functionality of a console server, the monitoring and diagnostics of systems management tools and automation in a single integrated appliance.

Automating routine tasks remotely
According to Mark Piening, vice president of marketing at Uplogix, the 430, which has a starting price of $2,500, “addresses anywhere from 50% to 80% of the routine maintenance actions a network administrator takes.” The 430 utilizes the company’s Remote Management Operating System (RMOS), which enables automated detection and repair of network-related problems, such as configuration errors and telecommunications faults, and reduces support costs.

Piening said that Uplogix’s customers typically deploy the company’s products to reduce IT operating costs (by eliminating the need for in-person troubleshooting) and reduce capital expenses. Uplogix’s integrated remote management tools provide the same functionality found in server consoles, KVM tools and service processor management tools that are often deployed separately.

An integrated approach to remote management
Dennis Drogseth, vice president of IT research firm Enterprise Management Associates, said that Uplogix’s integrated offerings are unique in the marketplace. “Many network operations personnel in the data center are responsible for managing remote locations from a network perspective as well as actively configuring devices at a remote location,” he said. “Uplogix’s approach is to support network operations in the data center, and this separates the company from Avocent and Raritan.”

Avocent is a Huntsville, Ala.-based provider of appliances for infrastructure management. The company offers branch infrastructure management appliances and software for servers, routers, PCs and other devices such as point-of-sale terminals. Raritan, out of Somerset, N.J., provides remote office management infrastructure tools, including KVM-over-IP-switches, serial console management servers, power management products and centralized management products.

Drogseth added that Uplogix complements in-band network management tools from the likes of BMC, EMC and HP. “Uplogix provides added strength in terms of effecting change in network devices when connectivity is limited,” he said.

The latest version of Opalis Software Inc.’s flagship IT process automation server software was released a couple weeks ago. Among the enhanced features of the Opalis Integration Server 5.5 is a customizable executive dashboard designed to give high-level IT and other managers the ability to drill into graphs and get at the service data behind them. “The idea is to add value at all levels of IT from administrators, operators and up to senior managers,” said Charles Crouchman, the chief technology officer at Opalis. The executive dashboard, he added, is designed to provide senior IT managers who are responsible for managing the effectiveness of service delivery with relevant data.

Executive dashboards for IT process automation? Sounds a lot like business intelligence for the IT operations set.

Actually, executive dashboards aren’t that new to IT process automation in particular and systems management in general, according to Rich Ptak, an analyst with Ptak, Noel & Associates. “Most infrastructure management solutions have some sort of dashboard — executive or otherwise — that ships with the product,” he said. “What is important is the engine underneath the dashboard.” In the case of Opalis, things like powerful supporting analytics, strong report-generation capabilities, and the ability to correlate and compare data make its executive dashboard stand out.

As Ptak sees it, the emphasis that Opalis places on executive dashboards is beneficial to IT managers, who have often been reluctant to proactively build tools that demonstrate what they do and how it affects the business. “For too long, the game was to collect as much data as possible and throw that data and analytic tools at the end user,” he said. “Today the vendors are taking more responsibility for helping IT and their customers to get real information in understandable formats.”

In mid-April, Qlusters Inc., opted to drop its sponsorship of the openQRM project, an open source provisioning and monitoring tool. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based provider of data center management products and services handed over openQRM to the open source folks at SourceForge where the project will reportedly continue under the tutelage of project manager Matt Rechenburg. In a subsequent blog post, Matthew Aslett, an enterprise software analyst at the 451 Group speculates on the fate of Qlusters, wondering whether the OpenQRM announcement signals the demise of the “little four” group of open source systems management vendors.

Could GroundWork, Hyperic and Zenoss possibly be on the verge of quietly disengaging from the world of open source systems management?

The folks at GroundWork took enough exception to Aslett’s post to contact me and give me their perspective. “Going with one of the big four, or going with one of the open source vendors isn’t an either or choice,” said David Dennis, senior director of product marketing at GroundWork. In terms of systems management tools, “there are alternatives from smaller vendors that are displacing or complementing specific pieces of what the big vendors offer,” he said. “What we see is a melding of the offerings from smaller vendors with big vendors.”

Andi Mann, an analyst with the Enterprise Management Group has long been a proponent of an ecosystem of systems management providers, believing that no single vendor can provide all the capabilities required by most customers. And vendors both big and small seem to share this perspective if a few timely announcements are any indication.

Just this week, Netuitive Inc., a provider of performance management software announced integrations with systems management tool HP OpenView with the idea of enabling an end-to-end view into the health of business service management. And big four vendor CA has teamed up with process automation company Opalis Software in an OEM agreement designed to overlay a process automation layer on top of CA’s data center tools for change, control and configuration management.

So, notwithstanding what happens with Qlusters in the future, the systems management ecosystem seems to be evolving nicely.

As CEO of Opalis Software Inc., a Mississauga, Ont.-based provider of IT process automation software, Todd DeLaughter views systems management provider BMC Software Inc.’s recent announcement that it plans to acquire BladeLogic Inc. as a very healthy sign rather than a threat. “This is really the continuation of a trend,” DeLaughter said. “The market realizes the value of IT process automation.”

An independent vendor, Opalis has partnered with BladeLogic, a provider of server and application provisioning software, in the past; Opalis’ run book automation technology is incorporated into BladeLogic’s Orchestration Manager tool, a product that automates the design and workflow of IT operations processes. “What will happen going forward for us is more partnering,” DeLaughter said. Whether that partnering includes BMC – given that BMC has its own run book automation technology – is yet to be determined.

When asked about the possibility that Opalis could be acquired itself, or worse – overshadowed by the big systems management vendors bent on snapping up smaller, more innovative players – CEO DeLaughter was upbeat, as one would expect.

“The big management vendors are acquiring technology to glue together their own portfolios of applications so they can work together,” DeLaughter said. “We’re trying to solve the end-to- end issue of automation across a heterogeneous environment.”

The overall IT process automation market is a big one, DeLaughter contends, and he sees plenty of opportunity for an independent company like Opalis, especially among those customers who adamantly want to avoid vendor lock-in and thereby eschew a single vendor for all their systems management tools.

“We don’t want to be the glueware in someone’s portfolio of products,” DeLaughter said.

Please check out this site if you feel like laughing. It’s called, simply, SOA Facts. Its purpose is to make fun of service-oriented architecture, commonly called SOA, which is usually defined as building a set of business services that integrate data and processes from otherwise disconnected applications. Honestly, that’s the simplest definition I could come up with.

Anyway, SOA Facts nails the oft-ridiculousness of vendors reciting it as the end-all, be-all by making outlandish statements about the technology. A couple samples:

• SOA thought Mensa too easy, so it founded Sensa. SOA is the only member.
• Kazakstahn uses SOA to produce the world’s best Potassium.
• SOA is the only TLA (Three Letter Acronym) you will ever need. Until you actually implement it - then you’ll also need DOA.

If you’ve got some extra time afterward (we know you do), check out its sister site, Chuck Norris Facts, which includes this gem:”Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because he only recognizes the element of surprise.”

I just saw this cool story about a project at Wachovia Bank’s data center. The company is working with two vendors and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to create a 3-D map of the firm’s sprawling data center operations. The company is also working with Tideway Systems and Intepoint on the project.

Here’s what the report had to say about the project:

Wachovia is rendering 3-D models down to the level of individual servers in buildings, according to Jacob Hall, who heads the data center group at Wachovia (WB). Wachovia hopes the project will provide better visualization of IT assets and their power consumption. Curiously, the project doesn’t include instrumentation of the equipment for real-time monitoring, a key focus of many data center management products.

In a similar vein, Hewlett-Packard introduced a 3-D mapping tool for data centers this summer, called Thermal Zone Mapping, which generates a 3-D image of a data center, its hot spots and airflow.

Being a child of the 1980s, I think anything in 3-D is pretty rad - even if the technology doesn’t require the ever stylish red-and-blue-lensed cardboard shades.

Opsware Inc. has upgraded its Server Automation System software to help in ITIL adoption, virtualization management and security automation.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company has products to help IT managers automate and keep track of processes on their data center servers. It works on Windows, Linux and Unix.

The new version’s features include:

• The ability to integrate with PowerShell, a command-line scripting tool on Microsoft Windows, so that any information about a system managed by Opsware software can be viewed in PowerShell.
• Integration with Opsware’s Process Automation System to help in ITIL compliance.
• The ability to manage servers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 and integration with Red Hat Network to automatically download the appropriate upgrades and patches as they become available.

Here’s the full press release.