Well I will weigh in here with a different opinion.
The success or failure of systems/network management has NOTHING to do with the
product.
Anyone can right a ping script that emails you when a router is down or use an
off the shelf snmp walker program to do mib gets. NetView? OpenView? totally
unnecessary. No shop in the world "needs" either one. Both products are money
down a hole from an accountant's point of view.
Thats why when I was asked to replace the shareware "Whats Up" with a "real"
network management platform, I took a lot of heat from people. Not because my
choice (Netview) didn't do the job, but because Whats Up was essentially idiot
proof and free... why change? Why spend the money?
Sure, NetView and OpenView have additional features, like a GUI and databases
and trap processing. Both products have similar features, and like all
technology, is more mature in some ares than others. Several folks have
indicated preferences for both platforms. Both products are going to handle
discovery and network availability at a high level of maturity. Layer 2 stuff,
GUIs, automation and the "ancillary" features are going to be dicey. I consider
NetView best of breed, but you will have a hard time avoiding fixes/support
issues as soon as you stray off the "mature" path. So, you can not in my mind,
pick Netview over OpenView or vice versa on the basis of support issues, both
products have their share of "pending enhancements". And, as others have
pointed out, HP software support may be the part most lacking - in my mind
support is the most important thing since you pay for it every year. I am
convinced I am going to have software issues with (fill in the blank: cisco
IOS, Netview, Solaris, etc.) so knowing I am going to have ongoing software
issues no matter which platform I choose, I choose to have software defects
with the best technical support behind it. IBM technical support is as far as I
am concerned, the best there is available (at least for network software, from
my 20 years experience).
So, with that having been said, the issue boils down to - meeting the target. I
absolutely agree with those chiming "requirements requirements requirements".
If you are looking at a platform consolidation, you need to have the
requirments before you make the decision. It is those requirements, NOT the
product, but those people "perceptions" and technical "objectives" that MUST
exist or you simply won't be successful no matter which platform you pick. This
is a culture thing - everyone involved has to know the goal and choices about
platform aren't going to really affect deployment if the objectives aren't
clear in the first place.
-----Original Message-----
From: Francois Le Hir/Quebec/IBM [mailto:flehir@ca.ibm.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2002 11:46 AM
To: nv-l@lists.tivoli.com
Subject: [nv-l] Re: NetView vs. OpenView
Eric,
I am managing Netview here at a customer account to monitor the network
devices: we have 250 routers, 70 core switches and 800 desktop switches and
we are also 95% cisco... everything is working just fine. I think that one
product or another is able to do the job. However as you said the advantage
of Netview is that it integrate easily will all the others Tivoli tools.
Regards,
Francois Le Hir
Network Projects & Consulting Services
IBM Global Services
Phone: (514) 205 6695
--------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 14:15:26 +0000
To: nv-l@lists.tivoli.com
From: "Eric Pobst" <epobst98@hotmail.com>
Subject: NetView vs. OpenView
Message-ID: <F82k5egl4RxkkDF0dXB0001aaec@hotmail.com>
The battle continues??
Does anyone have or could point me in the direction of a document that
outlines the "NetView vs. OpenView" pro's/con's list. Currently at this
client site we use NetView to monitor all hardware on 100+ aix servers and
in the beginning stages of rolling the networks into the equation. The
problem lying, in that the network group has been using OpenView for a few
years now and they are somewhat convinced NetView would not meet their
requirements (99% Cisco network devices). So far with absolute certainty,
I
can only come up with 3 pts. why they should use NetView.
1. It is paid for (big one)
2. It is already integrated with our Tivoli/Remedy Ticketing system
3. They would not have to support the NetView product
Off course, these seem more like "salesman" points, I would prefer to
provide them a technical capability list. Unfortunately I have not fully
explored the Network monitoring capabilities of NetView and I have only
book
knowledge of OpenView, either way, I do not want to steer them wrong.
Thanks.
Eric
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