Finding lights under bushels

Another light hidden under a bushel is Open Call, the Division’s Service Control Platform that is at the heart of most of the major telecoms operations around the world. Though telecoms software is often seen, even by software vendors, as a separate corner of the world with little direct connection to other markets, the fact is that the Platform exactly mirrors the core operational services required by a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) run on those “lights out” datacentres. It can establish all the elements needed to provide a phone user with the services requested, monitor their operation and manage their interaction with a billing system, and finally tear down the service once the process is complete. These are exactly analogous to the processes needed for an SOA, making HP one of the few vendors with a provable – and profitable - track record in making such a process work.

HP’s Software Division has spent the last two years or so on a significant buying spree and has integrated 11 company acquisitions into its portfolio over the last two years. The latest is Trustgenics with its identity management tools, which is planned to provide the company with strengthened capabilities in the service management arena, and in particular the provision of federated services. This acquisition is allowing the company to not only catch up with others in the field but also to move ahead in some areas.

It provides a solution to the problem of travelling staff connecting to corporate systems from several points around the globe. In Europe, for example, someone going from one country to another cannot officially take data with them, so they need to either share it anonymously or opt-in to approved services. It also provides the tools for users to be signed up for new company services, have their access to services such as the Microsoft Exchange Servers provisioned and have Microsoft Outlook installed – and uninstalled should they leave the company – automatically. This last also has an impact on software licence management, as many companies these days are paying licence fees for old user IDs that have not been deleted.

The Trustgenics acquisition will also give HP the opportunity to integrate directly with the other identity management offerings from the likes of IBM, Novell and Sun.®