HP Uncorks OpenView Automation Manager
The technology vendor on Tuesday formally introduced its HP OpenView Automation Manager, an add-on that gives IT administrators the ability to orchestrate and automate complex network software deployment and workflow tasks, said Bill Emmett, chief solution manager for the management software organization at HP, Palo Alto, Calif.
OpenView Automation Manager has a direct lineage to HP's acquisitions of configuration and change management vendor Novadigm and server life-cycle management vendor Consera earlier this year, said Emmett.
OpenView Automation Manager uses an intuitive, graphical interface that provides models of different types of network automation which can be combined together or cross-applied to different tasks. Each model executes detailed environment and workflow tasks based on the desired type of automation being applied to the network, said Emmett.
For example, if 100 new users are being added to an Exchange server, a model can be selected to automatically download Exchange to the user PCs, add server capacity to support the new users, and set up e-mail accounts, said Emmett.
"There is a little bit of lightweight coding required, but what you are doing is building a flow chart for the automation," he said.
However, HP resellers should not expect to have OpenView Automation Manager in hand anytime soon. The vendor is initially selling OpenView Automation Manager direct in an effort to control and monitor its performance in the field so the product can be improved for future channel sales, said Emmett.
OpenView Automation Manager runs on Windows and Linux environments and soon will be compatible with HP's HP-UX operating system. Pricing is based on the type and size of a particular network, but a price of about $1,000 per server is a fairly good benchmark, said Emmett.