HP To Bolster OpenView

In a keynote address at BEA Systems' eWorld developer conference here last week, HP Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina unveiled initiatives to beef up HP's OpenView management platform. Fiorina said HP has created a dedicated Web services management group to develop new technology and is adding J2EE expertise to its Microsoft .Net professional services capabilities.

By the year's end, HP plans to have more than 1,000 Web services consultants, up from 450 now, Fiorina said. HP also aims to create management standards for Web services in tandem with BEA and other technology partners, she said.

On the product front, Fiorina touted HP's upcoming OpenView Web Services Management Engine, which intercepts Web services requests and manages actual services, instead of the platform they run on, she said.

The HP initiatives will help "overcome management barriers to Web services adoption," Fiorina said.

The OpenView Web Services Management Engine is due to ship this summer, said Al Smith, CTO of HP's Web services management organization. "If we're not one of the 800-pound gorillas in being able to manage environments that are created in Web services, then that would put at risk our [OpenView] market share and open the door for someone to come in," he said.

HP's move to add Web services management to OpenView will lighten the integration load on solution providers working with Web services technology, said

Bob Flaherty, vice president of service strategy and business development at InteQ, an OpenView solution provider and MSP in Bedford, Mass. "This allows us to not have to worry about building tools on top of OpenView, which makes it more efficient and less costly for us," Flaherty said.

IBM and Computer Associates also are working to develop Web services management APIs and add .Net management to their J2EE capabilities. Vendors are in a "feeding frenzy" in the market for Web services management, currently a key issue in Web services, said Sam Boonin, vice president of marketing at Blue Titan, a San Francisco-based solution provider.