The company today launched the Tivoli Manager for Applications (TMA), a tool that allows systems administrators to configure, install, distribute, and monitor client-server applications developed in-house, as opposed to off-the-shelf software.
While many tools exist to manage distributed shrink-wrapped applications, few work with custom-built software. Administrators can use TMA at a single site to manage distributed applications. The tool includes the Tivoli Developer Kit for Applications so developers can add application programming interfaces to custom applications so that they can be managed via the regular Tivoli console already widely used to manage commercial applications.
TMA is set to ship within a month priced at $4,500.
Powersoft has already signed up as the first vendor to support the tool and plans to both resell TMA and bundle it with its PowerBuilder application development tool, widely used to create the custom applications that TMA is designed to manage.
Tivoli is pushing other vendors to support TMA, including Lotus Development. To encourage the company, Tivoli plans to ship a development kit to link the TMA to Notes later this year, said Dennis Szerszan, Tivoli marketing manager. The kit will let custom Notes databases be added to the mix of applications accessible from the rest of the Tivoli system.
Future TMA versions will support specific intranet application features, such as support for firewalls, Szerszan said.
Powersoft's bundle will be called the Tivoli Manager for PowerBuilder Applications and will include TMA, PowerBuilder Enterprise 5.0 for Windows development tool, and the Tivoli Developer Kit at a promotional price of $4,995.
