Posts from — February 2007

Final version now available here.

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The IBM acquisition of Micromuse Inc. in 2006 marked a major milestone for IBM Tivoli software because it significantly strengthened the end-to-end IBM Service Management software portfolio. As new technologies emerge, the ability to manage networks and provide very high network availability has become increasingly important for most organizations.

While the IBM Tivoli NetView product has a long history of industry-leading utility, the addition of Netcool/Precision extends our network management capabilities to include enhanced layer2 network discovery and best-of-breed topology-based root cause analysis. This provides our customers with the most comprehensive, real-time understanding of their network infrastructures and the fastest possible resolution of network problems.

While significant focus is being placed on enhancing the ease of installation and use of coming versions of Netcool/Precision, IBM will continue to protect our NetView customers’ investments and intends to provide a smooth upgrade path to a future converged network management product offering.

This IBM Redbook will help companies determine if they should migrate now or wait. For those migrating, it provides detailed instructions for planning and performing the migration from IBM Tivoli NetView to Tivoli Netcool/Precision IP V3.6.

Atlanta Network and Systems Management Technical User Group (ANSMTUG)
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February Meeting Announcement
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This month’s meeting will be a little different than some of the past meetings. Are you hearing about ITIL but haven’t had time to look into it? Just need some information to get started? This month’s meeting is for you. BMC Software’s Scott Watson, a certified ITIL Service Manager, will be on hand to present an “ITIL Primer”. The presentation will provide an overview of ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) as well as some thoughts as to why you should care about ITIL. As usual, the presentation will focus on the topic and not sales.

Please help us out by RSVPing (see link below) by Tuesday, February 20th, if you intend to attend so we can have a headcount for the food
and drink.

What is the ANSMTUG all about?
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The Atlanta Network and Systems Management Technical User Group was created to foster collaboration between administrators, architects, engineers, and operators of applications and tools used to manage and monitor networks, systems, applications, services, and business activities.

There are numerous enterprise and service provider companies in the Atlanta area who use best of breed applications and tools from companies such as IBM Tivoli/Micromuse, OpenService, Quest Software (Foglight), Hewlett-Packard, EMC/SMARTS, BMC Software, CA, Concord Communications, InfoVista, etc. The intent of the group is not to be completely aligned with any particular vendor or solution, but rather focus on network and systems management applications and tools in general. There will likely be more focus on a select handful of vendor solutions than others, but this will be driven by the users and not the vendors.

Meeting Details
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Cost: Free!
Date: Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
Time: 7:00PM to 9:00(ish) PM
Location: IBM, 4111 Northside Parkway (near I-75 and the Mt Paran Road exit on the northwest side of town)

Parking: Free.

Refreshments: Food and drinks provided by BMC Software.

Please RSVP by Tuesday, February 20th, 2007 to rsvp@ansmtug.org

• 5 cool ways to use Yahoo! Pipes - franticindustries.
  (tags: pipes yahoo web2.0 mashup howto)
• Slicing and Dicing web data
  why yahoo pipes falls short and RSSbus gets it
  (tags: rss rssbus web2.0 mashup dataMashup privateMashup enterpriseMashup bsm2.0 dashboard2.0)

• Insight and outlook, Part 2: How do you translate business needs into IT requirements?
  (tags: IBM developerWorks business it alignment)
• IBM Redbooks | IBM Workplace Forms 2.6
  This IBM Redbook describes the features and functionality of Workplace Forms 2.6 and each of its component products. After introducing the products and providing an overview of features and functionality, we discuss the underlying product architecture and
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• BDNA Launches Accelerator for IBM Tivoli CCMDB
  BDNA Corporation, a leading provider of Enterprise Asset Inventory solutions, today launched its BDNA Accelerator for IBM Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database (CCMDB). BDNA also announced that its Inventory solution has been technically val
  (tags: IBM Tivoli ITCCMDB EAM integration BDNAcorp)
• OpsWare has apparently patented configuration management - O’Reilly Sysadmin
  he patent — number 7,124,289 — covers the cornerstone of Opsware’s technology, the ability to automate the management of servers and network devices across a data center through model-based control. This innovation allows models of granular configur
  (tags: Opsware configurationmanagement nccm patent)

Rich is spot on with this post and his design motives for Akorri. How can the incumbents reinvent themselves and their products? Is EOU developed inheriently in the developed product, choice of technologies, or the solution ultimately deployed for a customer?

-snip-

“It’s my belief that consumer based software products have raised the stakes for enterprise software vendors. Customers use Exchange, Excel, and other business productivity products every day in their office environment. They are finding these products easy to understand, start, and navigate. Whether consciously or unconsciously they now expect, even require, that the enterprise software products they purchase have the same “Ease of Use” (EOU) properties.

When I started Akorri this was on the forefront of my thinking. I needed to develop products that are as easy to understand, deploy and use. Clear, simple goals that are actually very difficult to achieve.

The gauntlet has been thrown down to enterprise software companies and we better listen. Heavy frameworks that require a team of people to manage and use just doesn’t cut it anymore. Customers are demanding that the products they buy put more time back into their day, not take away from it.”

• AlterPoint CEO Scott Harmon: Time to Open Device Management
  Network configuration management provider AlterPoint is a new member of the Open Management Consortium, offering both proprietary and licensed software. “Companies that do not build their software on top of open source will go the way of the dodo bird,” s
  (tags: Alterpoint Ziptie OSS NCCM configurationmanagement changemanagement)
• Strassmann, Inc. Home Page
  (tags: it-management business it technology management)
• AGI-Goldratt Institute - [Theory of Constraints (TOC) Consulting, Implementations, and Education]
  (tags: business management tools theoryofconstraints)
• Location, Path & Attribute Breadcrumbs | Keith Instone
  (tags: user-experience navigation breadcrumbs drilldown)

Atlanta Area Tivoli Storage User’s Group is forming with an inaugural meeting this coming Friday 2/16 at the Atlanta IBM Office located at 4111 Northside Parkway.

Information on this User Group can found at: http://www.tivoli-ug.org/groups?groupid=203

The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

9:15 - 9:30 Introductions
9:30 - 9:45 Users Group Kick-Off
9:45 - 11:00 TSM 5.4 Update
11:00- 11:15 Break
11:15 -11:xx Cristie BMR Demo
11:xx - 1:15 Lunch/continuation Cristie BMR Demo
1:15 - 1:30 Break
1:30 - 2:15 TPC
2:15 - 2:30 CDP

• HTTP and HTTPS Protocol Analyzer, HTTP Viewer, HTTP Sniffer and HTTP Monitor
  HTTP Analyzer is a sniffer tool that allows you to monitor and inspect HTTP/HTTPS traffic in real-time. It is used by industry-leading companies including Microsoft, Cisco, AOL and Google.
  It can trace and display wide range of information, including Head
  (tags: http monitor web webper)
• Fiddler HTTP Performance
  (tags: Fiddler HTTP webperf user-experience)
• Fiddler HTTP Debugger - Version Info
  (tags: http webperf user-experience performance)
• IBM Redbook Redwiki Concept
  cool
  (tags: IBM Redbook bestpractices immplmentation wiki collaboration)