Microsoft, EMC Team on Network Management

Microsoft Corp. is licensing technology from EMC Corp. and the companies are developing new technologies aimed at making it easier for businesses to monitor and manage their IT systems.

Microsoft will include EMC's Smarts network monitoring technology in future versions of Microsoft System Center Operations Manager, software used for end-to-end IT systems monitoring. EMC is also developing network management and root-cause analysis management packs that will be used in existing and future versions of System Center Operations Manager.

On Tuesday, the companies announced the first product based on their collaboration. The EMC Smarts Connector for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, which will become available in May, integrates the two products so that the technologies can share information with each other. The Smarts component shares network discovery, topology and root-cause events with the Operations Manager and the Operations Manager synchronizes alert status and resolution with Smarts.

Integrating the two products will help improve operations management across devices and systems, making it easier for users to identify where a problem may be occurring, Microsoft said.

EMC and Microsoft are also working on developing a cross-domain behavioral model in an effort to improve IT operations management across devices and systems. Operations Manager partners will be able to add to the model as they build new devices and applications. The model is expected to make it easier for users, particularly those with servers, applications and services from a variety of sources, to find the source of problems in their IT systems, the companies said.