Enterprise Management Using Web-Based Technology
Initial Contributors:
- BMC Software
- Cisco
- Compaq Computer Corporation
- Intel
- Microsoft
Distributed enterprise computing has drastically changed the way
users work. Connected to a network, users draw on applications
and data distributed across networks, including those on servers
thousands of miles away, to access the information they need to
make timely business decisions.
As organizations implement client/server computing, they reap
many benefits through improved access to distributed resources.
With those advantages, however, comes the burden of managing diverse
systems. The systems available today for managing heterogeneous
networks have several major shortcomings:
- The widely used approaches to network, systems, and applications
management have created incompatible infrastructures. Platform-dependent
and very complex, they make applications development and systems
and network management very costly by requiring system administrators
to deal with multiple technologies.
- Software developers must create applications for multiple
and competitive management environments. Because they cannot effectively
integrate their applications with other solutions, their ability
to provide innovative solutions is restrained.
- Current management platforms confine ability to scale as customer
needs grow.
- They are centralized and do not take advantage of the powerful
technology they are designed to manage.
- They compile data in inconsistent formats, complicating the
comparison of data from different management platforms and, as
a result, limiting the value of the data collected.
Working collectively to develop open management systems, users,
vendors and other industry constituencies have made limited progress.
Despite prolonged debate, they have failed to devise a viable
solution. The protocols and standards that have evolved--SNMP
and DMI, for example--have eased the task of managing individual
resources, but the problems posed by solution diversity continue
to make enterprise management extremely costly and complex.
Keeping a network of diverse systems, devices, and applications
running requires an expensive mix of administrative resources
and specialized software tools. The system administrators who
use those management tools must have a broad range of expertise,
preferably knowledge of SNMP and DMI, as well as the protocols
required for proprietary systems.
A Proposed Web-Based Standards Model
BMC Software, Cisco, Compaq, Intel, and Microsoft have issued
a call-to-action that invites the computer industry to ease system
management and reduce its prohibitive costs. They have proposed
that the industry adopt a set of standards based on open, evolving
Internet technology to address these requirements.
Their proposal defines standards for Web-based enterprise management
that elegantly remove several hurdles to distributed systems management.
The strength of the proposal lies in its simplicity. It draws
on ubiquitous Internet technology to provide a common base for
system management, using the Web browser as the primary user interface.
Web-based enterprise management provides an easy-to-use, cost-effective,
proactive, automated way of accessing consistent management data.
The viability of Web technology is evidenced by the way business
users have embraced the Internet, the only true distributed architecture
to boast such broad acceptance.
None of the companies sponsoring the proposal owns the standard.
The initial sponsors are inviting wide industry participation
to promote broad acceptance of the proposed standards and thus
accelerate the development and deployment of innovative applications
for system and network management.
Added functionality at a lower cost
Based on a very popular, easy-to-use Web-based interface,
the proposed management standards identify a consistent way for
working with a wide range of management information. Applications
and devices that embrace this standards will be accessible and
controllable from any client system equipped with a Web browser.
As a result, network and system management will benefit from the
richness of the Internet, which affords abundant, easily accessible
content and is incorporating innovative technologies at a rapid
rate.
The standards effort directly addresses these key issues, providing
three key advantages:
- Scalability. With a simple Web browser as the management
interface, organizations can cost-effectively take advantage of
networking technology they already have in place to manage a wide
range of network resources such as routers, hubs, PCs, workstations,
distributed applications, and databases. When the same technologies
used for building networks are used to create management applications,
the scalability of the applications can match that of the network.
The proposed standards provide such scalability by allowing a
system administrator to learn and implement just one interface
to monitor and maintain low-end devices and systems as well as
mainframes and everything in between. The standards will support
a broad range of management solutions and will build on Internet
innovations to meet the demanding requirements of the most complex
heterogeneous computing environments.
- Increased choice in applications, greater functionality.
The proposed open standards offer a single foundation on which
to build management applications, obviating the need to design
different versions for different management platforms and making
applications more efficient and cost-effective. They thus free
developers to concentrate on innovative functionality rather than
system differences and allow them to bring applications to market
more quickly. A major benefit for users will be significant: a
greater selection of management applications and added functionality
that takes advantage of rapidly evolving Web technology.
- Lowered costs for set up and operation. A single interface
for managing all networks, systems and applications will greatly
reduce the complexity that currently frustrates system administrators.
The proposed management standards will free them from having to
access management applications from specially outfitted consoles.
Instead, they will work at any Web-enabled client systems distributed
throughout an organization to access distributed management applications.
Access is controlled by the security measures implemented within
HTTP. A management system based on a Web browser interface that
eases access to management data for networks of UNIX, Windows
NT, MVS, VMS, and Netware platforms will be less costly to learn,
set up, operate, and support. Likewise, as easier application
development is enabled, management solutions will proliferate
and competition will impact prices. Today thousands of developers
are creating open Internet solutions. The Web-based technology
will enable them to apply this innovation to distributed management
applications.
Flexible means for accessing rich information
The proposed management standards will give system administrators
a more flexible way of managing networks, systems, and applications
than they currently have. For example, they will help network
administrators save time by allowing them to respond to a call
for assistance from any Web-enabled PC or workstation in the network.
HTML applications will link users to the rich resources of the
Internet. As a result, applications built on the proposed standards
will be able to connect system administrators and less knowledgeable
users to vendor Web sites and other locations, where they can
find timely information on the applications they depend on. For
example, at the Web site of an independent software vendor, users
could consult Help bulletin boards and product documentation illustrated
with 3D drawings, instructional audio programs, tutorial text,
and other materials would guide them step-by-step through their
management applications. The flexibility of the Internet would
allow for interactive, timely information that proposes customized
courses of action.
As more business-process data in corporations becomes accessible
via a Web browser, system administrators will access management
information and operational information with that browser. As
a result, using the same interface that makes corporate information
available, a system administrator could, for example, check the
accounting Web server to determine the best time to schedule downloads.
Investment protection through support for standards
Web-based enterprise management embraces existing management
standards and protocols, allowing the integration of the distributed
management services provided by different management platforms,
intelligent network devices, services, and applications. It does
not replace any standards or protocols. The proposed standards
integrate network and system management through use of the Web
technology without affecting the existing network infrastructure.
In this way, it preserves companies' computing investments and
supports their plans for network expansion. Moreover, because
the proposal makes use of widely adopted Internet standards, it
taps into a large, growing community of application developers
who have the talent to create a new generation of management applications.
The proposed standards use the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP),
which has become the transport protocol best known for its association
with Web technology. The proposal presents management information
in HTML and other Internet data formats.
Components of the proposal also include:
- HyperMedia Management Schema (HMMS), an extensible data model
representing the managed environment.
- HyperMedia Object Manager (HMOM)), a generic definition for
management applications that aggregates management data and uses
one or more protocols to present a uniform representation to the
browser using HTML. The HMOM could be implemented using such existing
development platforms as Java, Active X, CGI, CORBA or COM.
- HyperMedia Management Protocol (HMMP), a communication protocol
embodying HMMS, run over HTTP.
What's next?
BMC Software, Cisco, Compaq, Intel, and Microsoft will promote
the adoption of the proposed standards in several ways. Working
together, and with other organizations that support the effort,
they will communicate the benefits of a Web-browser-based framework
to the industry. The five sponsors have invited other parties
interested in easing the cost and complexity of network, applications
and systems management to participate in the effort.
Components of this proposed standard have already been offered
to industry standards committees to help promote them in the public
forum. The HMMP will be submitted to the IETF. The HMMS will be
presented to the DMTF. A reference implementation of an HMOM will
be developed and placed in the public domain to initiate development
in the broader ISV community. Together, vendors, users, and standards
bodies can move network and systems management a major step forward.
For more information on the Web-based Enterprise Management effort,
visit its Web site -- http://wbem.freerange.com.
The Web sites of the initial contributors to the Web-based Enterprise
Management Effort are:
Glossary
| Common Object Request Broker Architecture |
CORBA | An architecture specified by the Object Management Group that supports interoperable, distributed object oriented systems
|
| Desktop Management Interface | DMI
| A standard management protocol designed and administered by the DMTF
|
| Desktop Management Task Force | DMTF
| An industry organization that manages the DMI specification
|
| Distributed Component Object Model | DCOM
| Microsoft's architecture for use of objects in a distributed enterprise
|
| HyperMedia Managed Object | HMMO
| A managed entity that has data that can be either interrogated or managed by a browser, either directly or through a management schema. Every framework object has at least one URL.
|
| HyperMedia Object Manager | HMOM
| An application that provides hierarchical control point for accessing and managing other HMMOs on the network, services to manage large numbers of managed objects, gateway agents to map HTTP request to the native protocol of the non-HMMO entity, such as SNMP and DMI. Same as HMOM
|
| HyperMedia Management Protocol | HMMP
| An object-oriented management protocol implemented on top of the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
|
| HyperMedia Management Schema | HMMS
| An extendible, object oriented data model that is used to model the managed environment
|
| Hyper Text Markup Language | HTML
| A language used to create documents that are processed and displayed by Web browsers
|
| Hyper Text Transfer Protocol | HTTP
| The data transfer protocol most associated with Web-based communications and information sharing.
|
| Internet Engineering Task Force | IETF
| A standards body whose focus is primarily on protocols used on the Internet
|
| Managed Object | | A system component that provides information required for management purposes
|
| Simple Network Management Protocol | SNMP
| A standard network management protocol developed for the TCP/IP Internet to communicate between agents and managers running diverse platforms
|
| Web-based enterprise management |
| Grass-roots efforts within the management community to leverage Web technology, especially browsers, into existing products
|
NOTICE
The information in this publication is subject to change without
notice. The issuing parties shall not be liable for technical
or editorial errors or omissions contained herein, nor for incidental
or consequential damages resulting from the furnishing, performance,
or use of this material. Product names mentioned herein may be
trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies. ©1996. Printed in the U.S.A.
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