HP Reinvests in Systinet with New Governance Software and Services

| Jan 31, 2008 | Application Infrastructure | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: Brad Shimmin

Current Perspective: Positive
Vendor Importance: High
Market Impact: High

Event Summary

January 28, 2008 – HP announced a comprehensive set of service-oriented architecture (SOA) governance software and services to help companies accelerate SOA adoption, while reducing potential risks, such as service disruption to the business. In addition, HP announced the expansion of its Governance Interoperability Framework (GIF), one of the industry’s first industry specifications for SOA governance interoperability. The framework deepens HP’s support for heterogeneous customer environments.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on HP’s series of announcements made surrounding its well-established Systinet SOA governance solution. With an incremental Systinet release (2.5.2), a re-energized Governance Interoperability Framework (GIF) program, broader training options, a developer rendition of Systinet, an ISV offering and new implementation and validation professional services, HP has demonstrated its unwavering commitment to Systinet.

• Vendor Importance: High to HP, because the company needed to show momentum surrounding Systinet. HP acquired Systinet in the summer of 2006 and since then, the vendor has only fielded incremental product releases (three in all). The firm’s latest release (2.5.2) does not in and of itself present any fundamental Systinet enhancements. However, this release coupled with the related software and services mentioned above, helps HP regain some of its diminished momentum. For example, Systinet 2.5.2, when combined with HP SOA Manager 2.5.1 (also just released) via GIF-based product integration can now cover both design time and runtime governance routines.

• Market Impact: High on the service-oriented architecture (SOA) market, particularly SOA governance players such as AmberPoint, SOA Software and SOA platform providers such as IBM, Oracle/BEA and Sun, all of which field a wide array of governance tools capable of supporting heterogeneous SOA implementations. This series of product releases sends a clear message that HP intends to fully compete in this space by positioning Systinet as a vendor-neutral offering for enterprise and ISV alike.

Recommended Competitor Actions

• Rivals should position HP’s release of Systinet 2.5.2 as a minor technology update that focuses on incremental UI improvements and improved cross-product interoperability (with SOA Manager) without introducing any substantial innovations. With a larger 3.0 release on the horizon (most likely before July, 2008), however, rivals with fledgling or nearing registry/repository solutions (notably MuleSource and Red Hat respectively) should consider any competitive opportunity granted by HP’s slow product update cycle to be short lived.

• Rival registry/repository vendors, particularly those just entering this market must prioritize change-time capabilities with impact analysis tools that can drill down through any observed asset and navigate through chains of relationships and interdependencies. This will provide users with a real-world, real-time view of all assets that support a given process, allowing them to fully manage those assets and conduct what-if scenarios to ascertain downstream impacts stemming from proposed policy changes as well as service updates and deprecations. This is the approach taken by leading firms Software AG and HP.

• All rivals with registry/repository solutions (most notably SOA Software) should support HP’s GIF standard. This will help these firms, despite their competitive stance, as the GIF initiative seeks to cover a broad array of governance requirements beyond processes, extending to management, security, integration and business intelligence. As a new member of the GIF program, Oracle (and BEA, which was already a member) has signaled its willingness to put interoperability over rivalry.

• Oracle, with its BEA acquisition, should promote the fact that it can move beyond reselling the Systinet product and can now ships a complete registry / repository solution (BEA AquaLogic Service Registry), thanks to BEA’s earlier acquisition of repository vendor Flashline. This solution has been well-integrated into BEA’s overall product line. For example, BEA AquaLogic Service Bus and BEA WebLogic Portal come with taxonomies pre-integrated.

• IBM should continue to market the fact that the company can offer very tight ties between its Tivoli, Rational and WebSphere offerings, giving customers a single point of reference for the entire software lifecycle. Even with the Mercury acquisition, HP lacks a solid development toolset. It has also chosen not to enter the SOA infrastructure market, preferring to partner with many of SOA solution players. This should serve as an advantage to IBM and other SOA platform providers including Software AG, Sun, IONA and even TIBCO (a Systinet OEM partner).

Recommended End User / Customer Actions

• Potential HP customers wishing to adopt a SOA architecture, beginning with a solid governance architecture, should strongly consider HP’s newly launched services plus software offering, Services for SOA Governance. This offering will help customers get a SOA implementation off the ground with a solid foundation using Systinet as the system of record for all future SOA offerings, regardless of vendor.

• Potential HP customers should also note that HP now offers installation and configuration services in support of Systinet and SOA Manager. With the release of Systinet 2.5.2 and SOA Manager 2.5.1, customers can treat these two solutions as an integral unit, thanks to newly minted interoperability compliments of GIF, which will allow customers to create policies in SOA manager and then publish those policies seamlessly within Systinet.

• Existing customers with HP Quality Center or Performance Center installations that are interested in extending their development efforts to SOA-based software should consider HP’s Validation and Implementation Services for Performance and Quality. Potential customers considering these services, however, should note that solutions require HP’s Performance Center or Quality Center be purchased separately under a term license.

• Potential customers evaluating registry/repository solutions as a part of a broader SOA governance initiative should hold research, if possible, until HP can release its pending Systinet 3.0 release, as this version will further differentiate HP from the gaggle of registry/repository solutions that have flooded the market over the past 12 months.

• Existing and potential customers seeking to build out services using the Systinet registry/repository solution without implementing or making use of an existing Systinet implementation should contact HP regarding its newly released developer edition, which can be run from the developer’s desktop version to support. This new version has been simplified and carries an aggressive pricing model that targets developers.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

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