System, heal thyself

By Michael Meehan

April 15, 2002 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - The challenge facing monitoring tools is to do something about network or systems problems once they discover them.

With its latest set of releases, Austin, Texas-based Tivoli Systems Inc. takes a deeper step into root-cause analysis.

Yet Valerie O'Connell, an analyst at Aberdeen Group Inc. in Boston, noted that "just because you know the root cause doesn't mean you can then do self-healing."

Carl Kessler, vice president for products at Tivoli, acknowledged that his company has taken only "a first step" toward monitoring tools that can fix a flaw once they find one.

O'Connell warned that users have to be in a position to take advantage of such tools when they mature. Networks and systems that aren't integrated will prove resistant to intelligent-monitoring fixes, she said.

According to O'Connell, "If you build in stovepipes, then you're stuck with stovepipes. You can't just insert a technology into a culture that's not prepared to use [it] and expect it to work."

Tim Grieser, an analyst at IDC in Framingham, Mass., said Tivoli might benefit from its IBM ownership in terms of offering self-healing tools. "They've got self-healing tools in development on the server side over there, so it might be another area where Tivoli can leverage its parent company," he said.

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