HP changes the storage competitive landscape with AppIQ purchase

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: MIKE KARP ON STORAGE IN THE ENTERPRISE
09/27/05
Today's focus: HP changes the storage competitive landscape
with AppIQ purchase

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* What HP's acquisition of AppIQ means to the industry
* Links related to Storage in the Enterprise
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: HP changes the storage competitive landscape
with AppIQ purchase

By Mike Karp

Last Monday, HP announced its acquisition of AppIQ
<http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/091905-hp-appiq.html?rl>,
the Burlington, Mass., start-up that has played a major role in
building the SMI specification
<http://www.networkworld.com/details/6264.html?rl> into an
industry standard. Today we'll look at what the fallout from
this purchase is likely to be.

AppIQ produces an SMI-based tool kit that hardware vendors use
to interface with management software so that managers can
discover their products. AppIQ also builds a management product
called StorageAuthority, a storage resource management (SRM)
package that is rebadged by HDS, HP and Sun. StorageAuthority is
built from the ground up on SMI-S, and the SNIA's last published
test results show that StorageAuthority is a technology leader.

HP is moving away from its home-grown proprietary tools in favor
of standards-based ones: the company uses StorageAuthority as
the SRM piece of its Storage Essentials software, the storage
management component of HP's standards-based Systems Insight
Manager. This move certainly provides significant added value to
HP's intellectual property portfolio, and makes it the industry
leader in standards-based storage management.

This move makes a lot of sense for HP and helps to bring a lot
of very useful SRM knowledge into the company. But does this put
competitors at a disadvantage? Probably not.

It is unlikely that HP would try to bring pressure to bear on
HDS and Sun, taking advantage of the fact that these two
competitors now rely on HP-AppIQ for a significant piece of
their SRM solutions. To understand this, it is necessary to be
mindful of the fact that the sole value of SMI-S is that it is a
standard extending across the industry. In other words, it
provides value by providing a common playing field to all
vendors. Were HP to withhold any aspect of the SMI-S tools it
develops, much of the value of its investment would suffer.

HDS, HP and Sun will still differentiate themselves from one
another through the non-SMI parts of their SRM solutions, and
through the proprietary management capabilities that they will
keep in-house. This, of course, is exactly what EMC and IBM are
already doing with their SMI-based offerings.

Actually, a parallel to this relationship already exists and,
curiously enough, with the same companies. Both HP and Sun buy
their high-end storage arrays from HDS, and have been doing so
for years. It is a good example of what has been termed
"co-opetition," where competitors sometimes find it is in
everyone's best interest to become allies even while they
compete.

Because of this, while Sun certainly won't like the idea of
contributing to HP's income, it is most unlikely that it would
walk away HP. And of course, don't expect HP to walk away from a
revenue stream.

Still, it must be said that with this acquisition HP at once has
stolen a march on its competitors and at the same time made a
public statement about the importance of standards-based
management to its strategy.

Feel free to disagree with me, of course. I try to respond
promptly to all e-mail that is sent my way.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. McAfee, Omniquad top anti-spyware test
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlstoragealert6931>
2. Ransomware: How big is your risk?
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlstorage7749>
3. How to solve Windows system crashes in minutes
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlstoragealert7669>
4. Mass. finalizes plans to phase out Office
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlstorage7750>
5. The rise of the IT architect
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlstoragealert7268>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Mike Karp

Mike Karp is senior analyst with Enterprise Management
Associates, focusing on storage, storage management and the
methodology that brings these issues into the marketplace. He
has spent more than 20 years in storage, systems management and
telecommunications. Mike can be reached via e-mail
<mailto:mkarp@enterprisemanagement.com>.
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Emulex HBAs for Your HP
BladeSystem

Introducing the Emulex-based Fibre Channel Mezzanine Card for
the HP p-class BladeSystem.

Emulex connectivity for your HP BladeSystem is available today.
Based on the same Emulex HBA technology that has been a trusted
element of HP storage solutions for years. Visit:
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=115868 for
worry-free SAN connectivity for your HP BladeSystem.
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

Archive of the Storage newsletter:
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/stor/index.html

Breaking storage news and analysis:
http://www.networkworld.com/topics/storage.html
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<http://www.networkworld.com/go/trendmicro/trend_frr>
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