DIA takes best of both worlds

With the help of Computer Sciences Corp., the Defense Intelligence Agency

took a hybrid approach with its systems management project, using solutions

from BMC Software Inc. in conjunction with Tivoli Systems Inc. management

framework software.

"You've got to select what provides the best capability without having

to depend on a single application that may or may not meet all your functional

requirements," said Peter Andersen, CSC's engineering manager for the Joint

Intelligence Virtual Architecture (JIVA) at DIA.

Andersen uses BMC Patrol at the server level and forwards Patrol alerts

up to the Tivoli framework via a TCP-level event call on an existing TCP/IP

network. Plus, he found the BMC gateway to Tivoli "extremely easy to implement,"

he said. Andersen chose to use Tivoli's Enterprise Console for the overall

network management user interface, called JEMS (JIVA Enterprise Management

System). He selected BMC Patrol's Knowledge Module for distributed monitoring

of applications, hosts and operating systems.

A combination of BMC and Tivoli tools manages remote access to the agency's

network. CSC chose Tivoli's user administration tool to generate user accounts.

But it selected BMC to monitor how many users are on any given system at

any given time. The BMC Patrol Knowledge Module for Internet Servers provides

license management for DIA's Joint Collaborative Environment. It shows how

many licenses there are, provides trend analysis, orders only the additional

licenses that are needed and can move licenses from one server to another

as needed, Andersen said. Using CSC's spiral design architecture methodology

for fast development with a parallel process — as opposed to a serial process — Andersen said the project moved along at a steady clip. "We completed

functional and security testing in August 2000," he said.

BMC's rapid installation policy, called Rapid Time to Value, abetted

the process. "There are 175 things we monitor out of the box," said Dean

Mericka, director of DOD and intelligence programs for Herndon, Va.-based

BMC. "We agree with the customer upfront on a cost and a schedule for implementation

and deployment, and we refund money to people if we don't make objectives."