News
Sky’s the Limit with Horizon for SAP Update
- By Stuart J. Johnston
- November 29, 2004
Tidal Software is shipping an update to its performance and availability management software for SAP on Windows that takes advantage of just released Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005.
Horizon for SAP version 1.1 adds new advanced reports functions that leverage MOM 2005’s new reporting engine to let users to examine application behavior over time in order to optimize SAP application performance and availability. The package is designed to provide performance and availability management of SAP’s mySAP Business Suite of application products. Version 1.0 of Horizon was released earlier this year.
The update also leverages MOM 2005’s new “state view” capability to add a new “executive dashboard” feature that provides users with “at a glance display of the availability and performance of their entire SAP installation,” says Stephen Kangas, senior vice president of alliances and marketing for Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tidal Software.
In addition, version 1.1 provides what Kangas calls “proactive situation analysis” – i.e., capabilities aimed at alerting IT users of impending events before they occur rather than after the fact.
For example, in a simple scenario, Horizon might identify a near-full disk condition and alert an IT user to take action in advance of an application failure. “Horizon [1.1] speeds reaction time and provides the IT user the ability to take care of problems before business users notice them,” Kangas adds.
The update’s new analysis capabilities include the ability to examine monitor functions not tracked by SAP Computing Center Management System (CCMS) performance data.
Additionally, one of the new reporting capabilities aimed at saving users time spent
resolving problems and minimizing service level agreement (SLA) exceptions provides a snapshot of the SAP work processes at the time an alert is generated.
Horizon version 1.1 stores all SAP performance data along with alerts in the MOM 2005 data warehouse, enabling users to quickly define reports and graphs for SLA monitoring, trending and capacity planning purposes. Reports can be automatically distributed to designated users.
Horizon 1.1 will be available within the next 30 days. Pricing for Horizon is based on the number of SAP “employee self-service” and “professional” users purchased from SAP. Horizon for SAP requires MOM 2005 or MOM 2000 with Service Pack 1, and Microsoft SQL Server installed for use with MOM.
About the Author
Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.