Columns
Tool Watch
The Hurwitz Group Benchmark on Mission
Critical Software's OnePoint
| OVERALL
RATING |
8.9
(Rating 1-10, 10 highest) |
OVERVIEW Mission Critical Software's OnePoint product suite combines
a variety of capabilities into a single offering meant to help customers
manage all NT-related systems and applications. Riding on the success
of OnePoint and its ability to help customers manage highly distributed
NT environments, Mission Critical has launched another product within
the same family. The new OnePoint Operations Manager product bundles Windows
NT and Windows 2000 event management, applications management and service-level
management into a single offering.
!Comprehensiveness: With the combination of both event and applications
management, the product provides a good, comprehensive view of NT activity.
(Rating: 9 out of a possible 10) $Ease of use: This is one area where
customers were most pleased. One customer said that because this product
was so easy to use, it decreased training time and was therefore up and
running faster. (Rating: 10) %Adherence to standards and integration with
other products: Mission Critical currently provides basic SNMP integration,
but plans are currently in place to tie the information from OnePoint
Operations Manager to one or more higher level management offerings. (Rating:
7) QModularity: With this product being only one of many that make up
the entire OnePoint suite, customers can easily mix-and-match capabilities
as the need arises. (Rating: 9) WScalability: It can be hard to determine
the scalability of new products, but if the existing OnePoint family is
any indication, Mission Critical boasts at least one customer with 3,500
servers. (Rating: 8) ECross-platform support: OnePoint Operations Manager
is staying NT-focused, and customers seem to want it that way. (No rating)
RManagement and administrative support: The product's automated capabilities
are key to eliminating the need to manage the management system. (Rating:
9) TVendor support: Mission Critical's customers have stated that the
company is responsive and open to suggestions. (Rating: 10)
Conclusion: Mission Critical has the right idea in managing the business
process, rather than the network or applications themselves. This company
has gone from providing a tool that helps customers administer NT and
migrate to Windows 2000, to offering a complete NT-based system and applications
management product. On one hand, customers say Mission Critical is not
necessarily the most technically advanced of all its competitors, even
though this release is a large technological step forward for the company.
On the other hand, these same customers say that the support is exceptional
and they are confident Mission Critical will follow through with its stated
directions, such as integrating with additional management systems and
managing additional applications. Hurwitz Group believes that Mission
Critical should consider adding another business focus to its lineup.
With the capabilities provided through OnePoint Operations Manager, the
company is poised to begin moving its products into the Web management
space. As more companies use NT servers for Web hosting, Mission Critical
will have a significant advantage in providing a key piece of management
in the fast-growing e-business management arena.
| Mission
Critical Software's OnePoint |
|
VENDOR STRATEGY:
Mission Critical plans to stay ahead of its competition by focusing
on:
- Windows
NT and Windows 2000
- ActiveAgent
technology that automatically discovers servers and workstations,
then proactively monitors availability, performance and security
events
- Quick Return
On Opportunity (ROO) through more than 8,000 predefined ActiveKnowledge
rules
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY:
One of the key benefits of OnePoint Operations Manager is out-of-the-box
management. The product is built on Microsoft's COM and COM+, and
uses Microsoft's DNA architecture. With this foundation, Operations
Manager requires a single agent for multiple systems that automatically
updates rules and policies, as well as notes and resolves workflow
exceptions. It then saves all the information in a central SQL Server
knowledge base.
RISK ASSESSMENT:
OnePoint has been available for several years — certainly enough
time to get the kinks out. However, the product has only recently
been completely rewritten to take advantage of COM and COM+, and
Operations Manager is the newest piece in the family. Because Mission
Critical's Sentry Enterprise Event Manager (the name of the product
before it was rewritten) is currently being used in critical production
environments worldwide, taking a wait-and-see stance may be a bit
harsh. However, customers still need to be aware that they are buying
into a newly rewritten architecture.
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE:
When Mission Critical introduced its first product, NT management
was a new concept. Now OnePoint competes with products such as BMC's
Patrol and NetIQ's AppManager. The advantage of OnePoint Operations
Manager is the combination of application, event and service-level
management — providing the ability to manage a business process
rather than different technology needs. Another advantage of the
OnePoint suite, according to customers, is its ability to integrate
this business process with other products in the suite that may
already be in place.
|
Tool Watch is compiled
from The Hurwitz Report research newsletter from Hurwitz Group Inc., 111
Speen Street, Framingham, Mass., 01701; E-mail [email protected];
http://www. hurwitz.com.