Network Management Solutions

We first started tracking this segment two years ago, and find that HP continues its lead, followed by IBM Tivoli. The network management space is increasingly becoming interesting, largely because networks themselves are becoming more complex. For one, it's no longer about managing clients and servers alone. It's about managing the complete IT infrastructure that consists of a separate storage network, the networking equipment, applications, and much more.

Microsoft continues to remain on the third spot for the second time, although it's come down a few points. Unicentre TNG from CA was ahead of Avaya last year, but has fallen behind this year. The remaining two players from last year, Novell ManageWise and Zenith's Saaz have exited the club because they couldn't get sufficient points.

Both HP and IBM have really strengthened their positions by improving brand loyalties. HP Open View had 77% loyal customers last year, which has increased to a whopping 997%. Similarly, Tivoli was sitting at 72% last year, and has moved up to 90% this year. So it doesn't look as if it would be possible to move either HP or IBM out of their positions. HP with its highest brand loyalty of the lot, has only 3% of its existing customers wanting to shift to something else. Even there, none of them want to shift to any of the other majors in the users' choice club. Next on line is IBM Tivoli, with only 10% of its existing customers wanting to shift to another management platform. 5% of these have preferred CA's Unicentre, while the remaining 5% plan to go for other platforms.

Brand Shift (%) 2003

The worst hit is Microsoft's SMS Server with a mere 56% loyal customers. The remaining 44% said they'd like to shift to other platforms like Unicentre, OpenView, Tivoli, or even other platforms. Microsoft was in a similar soup last year as well, but this year it's worsened. Even CA's Unicentre sees a sharp decline in its brand loyalty from 82% last year to a mere 70% this year. Where would most of its existing customers like to head? 15% opted for OpenView, while around 8% opted for Tivoli and SMS Server each.The only region HP has the strongest grasp is south. In North, although it has a lead, it faces stiff competition from IBM. 30% of the users who voted from North voted for HP, while 26% voted for IBM. In the west and east, HP's behind IBM. 37% of the users who voted from the west voted for IBM while only 12% voted for HP. Similarly, in the east, the votes were 43% and 19% for IBM and HP respectively.