Small and midsize companies often struggle with network and systems management, but with processing power moving away from the data center, centralized device management is more challenging than ever before. Cisco's latest move is an attempt to meet that challenge.
Network and systems management has long been a challenge for small and midsize companies. As processing power has been farmed out from the data center to various end points, such as laptops and cell phones, companies have found it difficult to centrally manage devices. One of the industry's most influential suppliers recently made an acquisition in order to try and help meet that challenge.
Tracking application performance has become more difficult recently as small and midsize businesses have been moving away from monolithic application design to Web services and service-oriented architecture, or SOA.
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As a result, business networks have become more dispersed and application software has been divvied up into many pieces, which often run on different machines. Applications now feature many different components; they can be .Net-based, written in Java, a Web service, a SOA element, a composite application, or a business process constructed through the orchestration of independent business functions. Applications can be focused on internal business functions, be customer-facing, or work behind the scenes collecting data from several different sources.
This diversity has made management more challenging. A small or midsize business needs to be able to trace the information flow as it crosses these components in order to gauge network and system performance and then troubleshoot any problems. The reality is most management tools were designed to examine the autonomous elements (network switches, servers, database management systems) along the connection, but companies require management applications that are able to look at overall (from end to end) as well as individual (each of the different elements) performance.
Cisco recent announcement that it will acquire Tidal Software in a move to help meet the evolving application management challenges. Tidal, a privately held maker of management tools, has developed a broad suite of management offerings. Many were designed to monitor the performance of various application components, such as IBM's WebSphere, the Oracle DBMS, or Veritas' NetBackup software. Cisco was probably most interested in Tidal's Intersperse software, which was built to provide application performance information. The product includes application management, business process tracing, and runtime monitoring features. The software is designed to proactively detect problems, identify problem spots, and then pinpoint the cause of slow performance. In some cases, Intersperse can help IT managers create self-healing capabilities in their companies' SOA applications.
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Such features appealed to Cisco for a couple of reasons. The company has a broad portfolio of management tools, but most are tied to distinct products. On a few occasions, the company has attempted to position CiscoWorks as an all-encompassing network and systems management tool but had limited success with such forays. Intersperse could provide the company with a new entry point into that market.
In addition, the acquisition could help the company financially. With the market for network equipment starting to show signs of constriction and Wall Street demanding continued revenue increases, Cisco has been looking for new revenue opportunities. Given its $40 billion in annual revenue, it needed some large markets and has set its sights squarely on the data center. To be successful there, it needs strong systems and network management tools.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Cisco's 2009 fiscal year, which closes at the end of July. Tidal will then become part of the Cisco Advanced Services organization. A few more steps will be needed for the acquisition to be successful. First, Cisco will need to integrate the new organization into its operation. Since the company has acquired more than 125 businesses in its history, it should have the mechanism in place to integrate the personnel. The vendor will then need to figure out how it will leverage the purchase to create a greater presence in the management space. How that process will unfold is unclear because this is an area where new requirements have emerged and competition has increased.
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Cisco's decision could mean good news for small and midsize businesses. Many have been frustrated with the various management tools available. A raft of startups and small companies have taken different approaches to try to deliver these tools. While users have more choices, they may feel uncomfortable relying on some of the vendors. Cisco's entry could mean that larger vendors are willing to invest this market and provide them with more possible solutions to a vexing problem.
See more columns by Paul Korzeniowski.
Paul Korzeniowski is a Sudbury, Mass.-based freelance writer who has been writing about networking issues for two decades. His work has appeared in Business 2.0, Entrepreneur, Investor's Business Daily, Newsweek, and InformationWeek.
