HP, MS link management

With a full-blown version of Hewlett-Packard's (HWP) OpenView enterprise management platform due for Windows soon, it was only a matter of time before the company announced integration with Microsoft's (MSFT) System Management Server (SMS).

OpenView will enhance its management of Windows NT-based networks by mid-1997 with the integration of OpenView products IT/Operations and IT/Administration. Using these tools, enterprise administrators will be able to manage NT desktops and servers as part of the overall network.

Through SMS, administrators will be able to deploy software across a network and check on the status of software installation.

OpenView, the leading Unix-based enterprise management platform, will roll out a series of integrated components in advance of the release of OpenView for Windows, a separate product due by the end of the year. A version of OpenView Network Node Manager--the foundation of the Unix-based product--for NT is due in a few months as well.

Agents for IT/Operations and IT/Administration will be specifically designed to work with SMS and will ship with the next version of SMS, due next year.

Separately, HP also announced it will use Seagate Software's Direct Tape Access technology to let HP tape drives be used as general purpose storage devices. The Seagate technology will be available with HP tape drives by the end of this year.