HP repackages apps stack

TURNING ITS BACK on critical middleware application development, Hewlett-Packard is attempting to build momentum around its efforts to repackage itself as a Web services management player.

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Months after conceding it would abandon the Netaction application server technology obtained in the $470 million Bluestone acquisition, HP is beginning to wrap more detail around a partnering strategy that increasingly relies on its own OpenView system-management platform.

Rather than provide its own application server, portal software, or other middleware-related services, Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP is partnering with BEA Systems, Microsoft, and Iona for these functions.

The company this week announced it would bundle a trial version of BEA Systems' application server software with every server it sells and supports, starting with those running HP-UX.

In addition, executives announced the company will work with Microsoft to ensure that .Net platform implementations work well in large enterprises. The plan is intended to make use of HP's expertise in designing, implementing, supporting, and managing large IT implementations.

"Our plan is to be much more focused on Web services management -- to extend OpenView to Web services management," said Chris Benedetto, business integration and productivity solutions director at HP's Enterprise Systems Group in Cherry Hill, N.J.

As a result, OpenView is being expanded to serve as a richer tool for managing Web services and applications, Benedetto said, using technologies such as OMI (Open Management Interface) to become more involved in business activity monitoring.

"[HP OpenView] will increase in scope. It will be able to do much more and higher in the [applications] stack," Benedetto said.

For traditional middleware functions such as messaging, HP also is relying on a partnership with Tibco, which provides its Rendezvous messaging bus, according to HP.

Meanwhile, Waltham, Mass.-based Iona is building on its existing relationship with HP, with plans to make its Orbix E2A Web Services Integration Platform XMLBus Edition generally available on the HP-UX-based Itanium processor family. This will increase the companies' portfolio of integrated hardware, software, and services solutions for enterprise customers, the companies report.

Iona will offer extensive support of its Web services, J2EE, and CORBA technologies across HP operating environments. Iona also plans to certify its Orbix E2A Application Server Platform on the upcoming family of HP AlphaServer systems based on EV7.

The risk inherent in the collaborative strategy is that it leaves development of application servers and other critical middleware to others, losing an important part of its relationship with enterprise customers, argued Shawn Willett, a principal analyst at Sterling, Va.-based Current Analysis.

HP's Benedetto countered that the strategy offers new opportunities, noting that HP will work to get sales personnel up to speed on BEA at the HP America's Field Sales Conference this month in Las Vegas.

"We will always lead with BEA in J2EE focus situations, and we have dedicated consulting teams there, and we also have an enterprise sales force," Benedetto said.

But the BEA partnership is not exclusive, and HP will continue to work with other application server providers for customers who prefer other vendors' products.

When it comes to Microsoft, HP has an offering for .Net-based customers via its .Net Results program. HP's Intel-based Proliant servers will be offered as platforms for Microsoft products, such as SQL Server, data mining tools, and BizTalk e-commerce applications. HP becomes "a prime integrator for .Net solutions," Benedetto said.

Mike Gilpin, research fellow at Giga Information Group in Gaithersburg, Md., concurs. "They no longer intend to provide a solution which is based on technology they built themselves because, after all, most customers want to buy that technology from companies that are able to be a market leader in that category," he said.

"I think you're likely to see BEA and Microsoft both positioned by HP as the software stacks that [HP makes] an effort to pre-integrate into the HP platform."

HP's original strategy would have seen it compete in the middleware space and leverage its Bluestone assets to boost other offerings, but the products gained little traction among customers.

Reports surfaced that Oracle was interested in acquiring the Bluestone technology, but no deal was consummated, and most Bluestone products have been put into maintenance mode. Customers who purchased Bluestone offerings are being transitioned to BEA, Benedetto said.

"The market shifted, things changed, and the Bluestone acquisition didn't work out," Benedetto added.

Looking ahead, the stakes are high. "Overall, the sale of hardware [and] storage is very dependent on software and the enabling layer of middleware," Benedetto said.