Quoting from CBR Online:
OpenView Operations manager 7.5, Windows Limited Edition, provides a single Windows-based console to manage local servers, and the applications that run on them. Although the console is based on Windows, the product can manage servers or instances of databases, email systems, or applications running on Unix or Linux as well.
The package is designed for small-midsize businesses that want the functionality of OpenView, but in a simpler, cheaper package. HP says that it is targeting SMBs and departments of large enterprises.
Pricing for the bundle, which covers 20 servers, plus a choice of one “smart plug-in” for the Oracle database, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, Active Directory, or Microsoft Virtual Server, retails for $17,995, available immediately. Other plug-ins can be purchased for $1,000 – $2,000 apiece and a one-time upgrade to add 10 servers (to 30 in total) is also available.
HP is counting on the reputation of OpenView to sell the product. “The difference is this is based on experience with UNIX product, which has proven scalability,” said Andy Smith, solution marketing manager for HP.
However, by design, the new package is designed not to be scalable. That’s because HP has had to walk a bit of a tightrope here, since it doesn’t want to cannibalize the existing OpenView corporate market by allowing large clients to simply stock up in a bunch of Limited Editions.
Besides placing a firm top limit of 30 servers, HP has confined the product to a single console, meaning that data cannot be exchanged to master consoles. That should make little difference to organizations on the lower end of the $10 – $100m segment. However, HP will have to offer a migration path if the new Limited Edition is to have appeal to departments of larger entities.