The solution from IBM and Cisco is designed for Web servers and marries the intelligence of the 390 s workload balancing system, which sets priorities, with Cisco s multinode load balancing system, which then distributes the traffic over the network in a more optimal manner. The symbiotic capabilities of the IBM and Cisco products is a result of the August 1999 strategic alliance between the two firms in which IBM is decreasing its involvement in the networking gear market, with Cisco being the recommended inheritor. The agreement calls for IBM to cede its switches and router intellectual property to Cisco while IBM Global Services gains a strategic relationship with Cisco. Both the systems management and network management markets are becoming more critical to enterprises. Although network performance management is by far the largest sector in 2000, by 2003 the service management sector will be the largest sector.
Service management is the past, present, and future of network management .
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