MOM 2000 Connector Promises Better .Net Web Services Management--With ISV Help

At its Professional Developers Conference (PDC), Microsoft is expected to formally unveil its MOM 2000 Connector Framework, a Web services-based framework that CA has used to develop a MOM connector for its Unicenter Web Services Distributed Management (WSDM) platform and that Actional has harnessed to create a management pack for its own Web services management platform.

The connector framework allows for the bi-directional flow of information to and from MOM 2000 to Unicenter and IBM Tivoli, as well as specialized Web services platforms, Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft's Enterprise Storage and Enterprise Management Divisions, said in a recent interview with CRN.

The connector allows for MOM monitoring information and alerts to be integrated into larger management environments, and for Web services management platforms to integrate MOM data including information about .Net applications and Web services, executives said.

The Redmond, Wash., software giant is itself promising significant Web services management capabilities for its MOM 2004 management platform due in mid-2004, including management packs for the .Net Framework and UDDI and a new Web services management pack that offers end-to-end monitoring of Web services across mixed, heterogeneous systems.

However, executives acknowledged that its current tools offer little in this respect and in the meantime will rely on top management software gurus such as CA, IBM Tivoli and HP, and specialized ISVs such as Actional and Amberpoint, to give customers tools for managing .Net applications and services.

"They're building management packs to connect their Web services management platforms with MOM," Muglia said. "The [connector framework] is a Web services hook into MOM."

CA developed a MOM 2000 connector--also called a management pack--that will be available shortly as a download and will ship as part of CA Unicenter WSMS platform by the first quarter of 2004, executives said.

"So many of our customers use Microsoft's platform to deploy Web services, but they don't have an integrated Web services management solution. So we developed [a connector] that allows customers to integrate and correlate management information between MOM and Unicenter," said Dmitri Tcherevik, director of Web services at CA, Islandia, N.Y. "When you integrate the two, you can combine platform management information and Web services management information and get end-to-end management for Web services deployed on .Net."

HP, Palo Alto, Calif., is also using the framework to enhance .Net Web services management for its installed base.

"HP OpenView Service Desk will be able to use the Microsoft Operations Manager Connector Framework to evolve our current connector to provide a realtime, bi-directional event integration platform for MOM users," said Rex Backman, an executive with HP's OpenView Business Unit.

Actional, a Mountain View, Calif.-based ISV that offers a specialized Web services management platform, also plans to debut at PDC on Wednesday the Actional Web Services Management Pack, Looking Glass MOM Connector and Actional Controls for Visual Studio .Net, the company said.