Novell Unveils Next-Generation Business Service Management Solution

WALTHAM, Mass., Nov. 10, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Novell, the leader in intelligent workload management, today announced the availability of Novell® Operations Center, a business service management solution that monitors, maps and measures mission-critical services in physical, virtual and cloud computing infrastructures. Formerly known as Novell Business Service Manager, Novell Operations Center features a built-in connector to Amazon EC2, full integration with Novell's portfolio of identity and systems management products and flexible packaging options. With Novell Operations Center, enterprises now have a real-time view of their IT infrastructure to accurately measure the quality of service they deliver to the business.

"We introduced a major e-business platform to give our customers online access to information and we needed to be able to ensure 24x7 availability – not just for the new Web servers, but also for a number of backend systems that the e-business platform depends on," said Thomas Werner, team leader of Systems Management at Gothaer Systems. "Without the Novell business service management solution, we could not have met the needs of the company's e-business strategy - it simply wouldn't have been possible to monitor our e-business systems from a service perspective. With the solution, we can more effectively and accurately see and diagnose IT infrastructure issues."

Novell Operations Center monitors performance and availability and maps service models to meet compliance while providing automated, real-time measurement. Unlike proprietary systems and service management tools, Novell Operations Center lets businesses leverage and easily integrate their existing tool investments and enables organizations to take advantage of lower-cost open source solutions at their pace. The more heterogeneous and complex the IT infrastructure, the greater value provided by Novell Operations Center.

"Hybrid cloud and virtual environments bring more complexity to IT departments already under pressure to align more effectively with business objectives," said Dennis Drogseth, vice president of Research at Enterprise Management Associates. "These technology initiatives are growing beyond fragmentary experiments to become assimilated into larger business service management strategies with clearly defined business goals. Business service management products like Novell Operations Center will enable enterprises to leverage their current technology investments as cornerstones for long-term strategic business advantages as well as present-tense tactical gains."

With this announcement, Novell has now fully integrated the Managed Objects portfolio of products with Novell's systems management solutions. As the newest product to be released from Novell's WorkloadIQ™ roadmap, Novell Operations Center is another milestone in Novell's delivery of products to meet the growing demand for intelligent workload management solutions. Intelligent workload management helps companies leverage their existing IT assets and management tools to realize the significant cost benefits offered by new models like virtualization and cloud computing, and provides them with the necessary tools to securely manage their IT services across organizational and geographical boundaries, and across physical, virtual and cloud environments.

New features for Novell Operations Center include:

• Tight integration with Novell identity, security and systems management solutions – In addition to support for many of the industry's leading monitoring and management tools, Novell Operations Center features seamless integration with:
  • Novell Cloud Manager and Novell PlateSpin® Recon to manage service levels for workloads in mixed business service models for private cloud deployments, discover virtual infrastructure and initiate workflows
  • Novell Sentinel and Novell Identity Manager for marrying security to infrastructure events providing a holistic view to manage service levels and deliver a common identity and access definition
  • Novell ZENworks® Asset Management and Novell ZENworks Configuration Management to provide a complete end-to-end view from the desktop to data center
• Integration with Amazon EC2 – Incorporates event management information from Amazon EC2, providing seamless monitoring and management of workloads. In addition, Novell Operations Center helps businesses monitor workloads being deployed to Amazon EC2, thus controlling costs as well as performance of the workloads.
• Flexible packaging – Updated options allow customers to select the starting point for service management that best meets business requirements. Packages include Novell Operations Center – the Engine (includes all modules); separate packages for Service Monitoring, Service Mapping and Service Measuring. All the tools for integration to current and future Novell products are included.

"Businesses need solutions that can tap into their existing data center sources and applications and deliver a view of their IT infrastructure in terms of a service," said Jim Ebzery, senior vice president and general manager of Security, Management and Operating Platforms at Novell. "Novell Operations Center mitigates risk by automating control over mixed physical, virtual and cloud infrastructures, while giving our customers increased flexibility to respond to changing market conditions. This product masks data center complexity and presents IT in a simple view that is aligned to business objectives."

Availability

Novell Operations Center is available now. For more information, visit www.novell.com/products/operations-center. Novell will be presenting an in-depth Webinar on how organizations can build a more meaningful relationship with their existing monitoring tools on Nov. 17 at 9:00 a.m. ET. To register for the Webinar, visit http://www.novell.com/bsm-monitoring-investments.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL), a leader in intelligent workload management, helps organizations securely deliver and manage computing services across physical, virtual and cloud computing environments. We help customers reduce the cost, complexity and risk associated with their IT systems through our solutions for identity and security, systems management, collaboration and Linux-based operating platforms. With our infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. For more information, visit www.novell.com.

Copyright © 2010 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved. Novell, the Novell logo, the N logo, PlateSpin, and ZENworks  are registered trademarks and WorkloadIQ is a trademark of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All third party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Novell