HP launches new automation software

Hewlett-Packard Co. introduced new software which the company said will allow users to customize and create workflows to automate IT management tasks. HP released the product -- originally developed by Consera Software -- after its acquisition of the software company was made final on Monday, an acquisition one industry observer said was a very wise move.

According to HP the purchase of Consera was made to add automation capabilities to the HP OpenView software portfolio. The product the company has introduced to achieve that goal is the HP OpenView Service Delivery Designer, formally marketed as Consera's AgileOne product.

The new product will enable companies to build graphical models that represent business services mapped to underlying IT components and will allow for unified management of the complete IT environment. HP also said the Delivery Designer's drag-and-drop interface will help companies reduce the time and cost of deployment and deliver a graphical user environment to develop new workflows or customize existing workflows.

From development through to production, the ability to drive new or modified workflows through the deployment cycle is also a component of HP's Delivery Designer, the company said, adding that the product allows for deployment of workflows into a test environment where logic can be assessed.

Warren Shiau, manager of software research at IDC, said HP's purchase of Consera "fits well" with the general direction of what users are demanding, which is for an improvement in the manageability of software at different points in the spectrum.

"It doesn't matter if it's infrastructure software...network management or applications, just manageability of software in general has become an issue," Shiau said.

He added that HP's acquisition of Consera is an example of an approach that many vendors are taking lately, which is to focus on a specific or targeted opportunity that would help the company get that "point type element of manageability in place," and, according to Shiau, this acquisition helps HP do that.

The company's acquisition of Consera was one of two purchases HP announced earlier this month. The second is of Novadigm Inc. -- providers of software and content management solutions -- which is still subject to the approval of the company's stockholders.

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