Geschickter of Hurwitz Consulting reasons that customers need not worry about TME developers focusing resources on IBM platforms to the exclusion of others. If IBM were to take a closed system approach, it would sabotage the value of its own asset, he says. TME currently supports 20 platforms, including 14 varieties of Unix as well as Microsoft Windows NT, which has been available for over a year. In March, HP announced that it would introduce NT-based agents for its OpenView systems, network, application and database management solutions during the first half of 1996. Application performance management is another area in which system management framework vendors compete for mind-share and alliances.
Competitive pressures produce strange bedfellows.
IBM's intent to absorb Tivoli invites comparison to another recent acquisition. If the acquisition proceeds as planned, systems management will become one of five software groups managed by John Thompson, an IBM senior vice president. The groupware division, led by Lotus Notes, is another of the five. Like Lotus, Tivoli will continue to keep its brand name. The reorganized products group that Tivoli will join will be Tivoli-centric, says Neath.