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Company profile

IBM Tivoli Netcool

Patrick Kelly, Research Director Analysys Mason

October 2010

IBM Tivoli Netcool i

Analysys Mason Limited 2010 October 2010

Contents

1 Executive summary 1

2 Market position 2

3 Tivoli Netcool Solutions 4

4 Customers 8

5 Acquisitions 9

6 Analysis 10

6.1 Strengths 10

6.2 Weaknesses 10

6.3 Threats 10

6.4 Opportunities 10

Copyright 2010. The information contained herein is the property of Analysys Mason Limited and is provided on

condition that it will not be reproduced, copied, lent or disclosed, directly or indirectly, nor used for any purpose other

than that for which it was specifically furnished.

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IBM Tivoli Netcool 1


1 Executive summary

IBM is a global IT infrastructure, software, and services supplier. IBM Tivoli Software, one of five software

divisions, focuses on service management solutions, including systems and network monitoring within the

IBM Software Group. IBM is the overall leader in the service assurance market, with a broad portfolio of

products and strong partnerships with all of the major infrastructure suppliers.

The Netcool service assurance portfolio of products, part of IBM Tivoli, is used to help communications

service providers (CSPs) consolidate software systems within their network operation environment and to

integrate third party products. IBM has been successful in building out strong partnerships with the network

equipment suppliers Alcatel Lucent and Cisco. Alcatel Lucent services group is its largest partner channel to

CSPs.

IBM has seen its market share increase during the recent recession as it leverages its position of strength in

the managed service business. IBM is also clever in developing opportunities that benefit the Tivoli Netcool

business. The Bharti revenue sharing model effectively removed most of IBMs competitors. IBM has been

able to successfully transition the telecommunications software businesses it has acquired into the Tivoli

business unit and still maintain its focus on the telecommunications market.

In 2009, Tivoli announced its Integrated Service Management (ISM) for Communicaton Service Provider

offering which delivers a management approach for next-generation networks and services that introduces

Tivoli Netcools traditional strength in network and service assurance and the management of assets,

security management, information management and configuration management. The focus of this profile is

on service assurance software, which is a component of the broader ISM for CSPs offering. IBM also has an

extensive set of professional services offerings for CSPs but again these are not covered in this profile.



2 Market position

IBM continues to be the # 1 supplier of service assurance solutions to communication service providers for

the second year at 13% market penetration. It retains the leading position in both the fault and event

management at 34% of a $500 million market and performance monitoring markets at 24% of a $375

million market based on market share data Analysys Mason published for year ending 2009.

Figure 2: Global service assurance revenue, 2009 [Source: Analysys Mason estimate, 2010]

We expect IBMs market share growth to continue owing to its broad portfolio of products, a global

professional services organization, and strong partnerships with all of the major infrastructure suppliers. The

Netcool asset helps CSPs consolidate software systems within its own portfolio of products, and also to

integrate third-party products a constant challenge for CSPs.

The estimated proportion of IBM Tivoli Netcool revenues for 2009 breakdown is as follows: North

America 40%, EMEA 40%, APAC 15% and CALA 5%.



Figure 2: IBM Tivoli Netcool service assurance revenue by region, 2009 [Source: Analysys Mason, 2010]

IBM has also been successful in building strong partnerships with the network equipment suppliers to seed

Netcool into the technology upgrade cycles for projects that are led by domain expertise from NEMs.

Alcatel-Lucent is the largest channel partner to CSPs for Netcool Service Assurance both via OEM

agreements and with Alcatels integration and services division (ISD). Cisco uses Netcool technology for its

Cisco Info Center (CIC) which, is supplied to both enterprise and CSP customers.



3 Tivoli Netcool Solutions

Service providers have traditionally seen Netcool as a manager of managers in that it takes events and

alarms from different management subsystems, processes the data, and presents information in a

consolidated view for the operator. Netcool supports more than 300 software probes that collect events from

a wide variety of network and element management systems. When the Tivoli Netcool event system is

integrated with the network discovery and dependency mapping capability of IBM Tivolis Network

Manager, the customer can take advantage of the root cause analysis functionality.

IBMs service management strategy is to provide best-of-breed comprehensive solutions across operations

and IT, and other lines of business (customer care, sales, etc) to enable carriers to speed time to market,

ensure quality of service and improve the operational efficiency of CSPs. IBM leverages the Tivoli Netcool

product suite as the cornerstone of its offering bringing real time service management together with service

quality and customer experience management in a single modular solution set. To maximize the ROI to

customers Tivoli is rolling out a single common visualization platform into these Service Management

modules and across the broader Tivoli Netcool assurance suite. This key integration initiative is not only

designed to reduce training and operating times for staff moving between functional domains but it aims to

provide valuable capabilities such as Launch in Context to leverage the true value of an integrated

portfolio.

Figure 3: IBM Tivoli Netcool capabilities in service assurance [Source: Analysys Mason, 2010]

9

Analysys Mason Limited 2010

Service assurance software features

Service assurance market share report 2009 Market definition

Figure 6: Service assurance software features by sub-segment [Source: Analysys Mason, 2010]

End user

Mobile phone CPE

Access network Aggregation network Core network IT network

SLA

KPI/KQI Impact analysis

Virtualised services

Active Passive

Remote test DPI

Probe systems

Service management

Network topology

Discovery

Fault and event

management

Root cause analysis

Dispatch

ACS

Workforce automation

Home network management

Counter analysis

Polling

Performance monitoring

Capacity planning

Customer

records

Table 1 lists the products that form the Netcool Service Assurance portfolio. Other products that are

included in the ISM for CSP offering but are not service assurance products are not listed.



Table 1: IBM Tivoli Netcool service assurance solutions [Source: Analysys Mason, 2010]

Solution Details



Solution Details

IBM Tivoli

Netcool/OMNIbus

Delivers real-time, centralized supervision and fault/event management for complex IT

domains and next-generation network environments.

Core component to collect, consolidate, and de-duplicate events and present real-time user-

configurable views of faults in the network.

IBM Tivoli Network

Manager

Tivoli Network Manager software discovers, models and maintains a knowledgebase of

network devices and their connectivity. Network Manager supports discovery of layer 1, 2

and 3 networks including DWDM, SONET/SDH, IP, Ethernet and MPLS.

Network Manager actively monitors the network to proactively identify network problems.

Network Manager enriches event information with network configuration information it's

discovered and uses the network connectivity model to perform advanced fault correlation.

Network Manager provides web-based visualization of the network infrastructure which

supports network fault isolation and troubleshooting, and includes reports showing network

availability and inventory information.

IBM Tivoli

Netcool/Webtop

Real-time Web-enabled interface that enables monitoring and viewing of high volumes of

management data from Netcool/OMNIbus

IBM Tivoli Netcool

Service Quality

Management Center

A single, integrated dashboard based solution that is based on a modular architecture. It

included a set of extensible, off-the-shelf service-specific solutions to reduce total cost of

ownership.

TNSQMC consists of:

Tivoli Netcool Business Service Manager

Tivoli Netcool Service Quality Manager

Tivoli Netcool Customer Experience Manager

IBM Tivoli

Netcool/Impact

A policy engine, commonly used for event enrichment with business and service context

its ability to provide operators in the NOC with information about the effect of faults that

enables prioritized response based on business impact.

Administrators can define specific actions based on specific events and these actions can

include adding business context to events, business impact analysis, advanced event

correlation, calculation of key performance indicators (KPIs), notification and escalation, and

virtually any custom data manipulation and action

IBM Tivoli Netcool

Performance Manager

Performance management solution for fixed, mobile and convergent networks that collects

performance data and generates reports that provides visibility needed to help minimize

service degradations, disruptions, and troubleshooting time .

TNPM provides performance metrics to manage all aspects of a CSPs wireless, wireline or

IP network infrastructure

IBM Tivoli Netcool

Configuration Manager

TNCM automates critical network configuration and change management tasks, controls

network device access and ensures comprehensive network policy compliance.

This enables network operators and administrators can enhance network security by

controlling access by users, devices and commands, maintain the real-time state of the

network and automate routine configuration management tasks.

IBM Tivoli Netcool

Carrier VoIP Manager

Netcool Carrier VoIP Manager is an integrated multi-vendor fault, performance and service

management solution helping Service Providers to manage their core VoIP network

environment, including: Media Gateway Controller, Signaling Gateway, Media Gateway,

Media Server, as well as Session Border Controllers.

IBM Tivoli Netcool

Performance Flow

Analyzer

A flow-based network traffic analysis system that provides a detailed view of resource usage

in networked IT infrastructures based on NetFlow/IPFIX



Solution Details

IBM Tivoli Composite

Application Manager

A solution that helps increase the performance and availability of business-critical

applications. It provides real-time problem detection, analysis and repair to help maintain the

availability and performance of applications.

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager is available in 4 Editions

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Transactions

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for SOA

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for WebSphere

Tivoli Composite Application Manager for J2EE

IBM Tivoli Monitoring A solution to manage end-to-end the health and availability of IT infrastructure, including

operating systems, databases and servers, across distributed and host environments.

IBM Tivoli Netcool

Network Mediation

A solution to carry out OSS mediation. To collect, process and distribute data for

telecommunications networks to various OSS platforms.

IBM Tivoli Security

Operations Manager

A solution that centralizes and stores security data from throughout the technology

infrastructure to improve security operations and information risk management

IBM Tivoli Service

Request Manager:

A scalable and flexible service desk/service catalog and workflow solution for both NOC

trouble ticketing applications and for IT Help Desk/Self Service deployments. Tivoli Service

Request Manager is built on the same technology as Maximo EAM and is an integrated

component of the Maximo EAM platform



4 Customers

Netcool service assurance solutions are widely deployed across most tier-1 CSPs. For example, CSPs often

use the Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus product as a manager of managers to accept events and alarms from

different management subsystems, processes the data, and presents information in a consolidated view for

the operator. Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus includes a wide range of probes and gateways that collect events

from thousands of network device types and element management systems.

Table 2 below provides a sample list of customer deployments in the past 12 months.

Table 2: IBM Tivoli Netcool service assurance solutions [Source: Analysys Mason, 2010]

Customer Region Link for more information

Bharti APAC http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/growth/bharti/bharti_casestudy_b.shtml

Sky EMEA http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/STRD-

7K2K5B?OpenDocument&Site=tivoli&cty=en_us

Corenet EMEA http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/LWIS-

7PLRXL?OpenDocument&Site=tivoli&cty=en_us

PTXL APAC http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/LWIS-

7HBPC9?OpenDocument&Site=tivoli&cty=en_us

Star

Technology

EMEA http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/LWIS-

7TJSJ2?OpenDocument&Site=tivoli&cty=en_us

TelstraClear APAC http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/LWIS-

77DSYB?OpenDocument&Site=tivoli&cty=en_us

Northwestel NA http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/LWIS-

7AMMKR?OpenDocument&Site=tivoli&cty=en_us

Kabel

Deutschland

GmbH

EMEA http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/LWIS-

7FZGWJ?OpenDocument&Site=tivoli&cty=en_us

Source: IBM



5 Acquisitions

IBM Tivoli Netcool carried out a number of acquisitions in the last few years s in order to extend its

software assets and expertise. IBM acquired publicly held Micromuse for $865 million in cash on February

15, 2006. The acquisition provides IBM with network fault and event correlation, security, and performance

monitoring software in the telecommunications market an area that IBM had limited capability in with its

Tivoli platform. Micromuse products form the core of the Netcool portfolio.

In 2006 IBM acquired MRO Software Inc., a publicly held company based in Bedford, Mass. The

approximate value of the transaction was $740 million. Following the deal, IBM established MRO

Software's operations as a business unit within its Tivoli software unit and incorporated MRO software

technology into the Tivoli software offerings. The acquisition of MRO Software strengthens the enterprise

systems management capabilities of IBMs Tivoli software portfolio and enhances IBM's already strong

asset management consulting capabilities in IBM Global Services. Selected MRO products are part the

Netcool Service Assurance portfolio and others are included in the broader ISM for CSPs offering.

IBM also acquired Vallent a leading supplier in the mobile performance monitoring market in 2007.

Vallent was a private company with major offices in Bellevue, Washington and Cork, Ireland. Vallent had

more than 200 customers worldwide and strong channel partnerships with Lucent, Motorola, and Alcatel.

Vallent ServiceAssure (now Tivoli Netcool Service Quality Manager) provides CSPs with a template of

KQI/KPI parameters used to report real-time information on service quality. The Vallent acquisition

complements IBMs software assets acquired from the Micromuse acquisition, and its products are also

included in the Netcool Service Assurance portfolio.

On Feb 16 2010, IBM acquired Intelliden a private software supplier of network configuration and

automation software. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The majority of Intelliden business is in the

telecommunication market. We estimate that 70% of its revenue is from CSPs that include BT, Telus,

Telecom Italia, Cbeyond, and other smaller deployments at tier 2 CSPs. This acquisition adds strong

technology in the network configuration domain, strengthens its value proposition in the managed services

and cloudburst offerings, and enables IBM to counter any threats from HP and EMC.



6 Analysis

6.1 Strengths

The significance of IBM as a software powerhouse puts it on the CIOs short list of suppliers. Most financial

analysts often point to the success of Cisco in their acquisition spree over the past decade. Less attention is

given to IBM in its quest to consolidate the software market. IBM has completed more than 50 software

acquisitions in the past 10 years some notable and others under the radar.

IBM has a very good track record of integrating both large and small software acquisitions to build a diverse

portfolio of products in the IT and telecommunications sector. IBMs ascendance into the ranks as a leading

software supplier to telecommunications suppliers was in part due to several acquisitions it made over the

past three years. The Tivoli software business unit has Netcool as its crown jewel for network operators..

Our market share estimates put IBM as the leader in the overall service assurance market.

The network equipment channel partnerships remain strong and it enables IBM to gain access to new

opportunities that require the management of new technologies in the fixed broadband and mobile

broadband segments.

6.2 Weaknesses

Despite the diversity of the portfolio of products, IBM relies on partnerships for its inventory product which,

creates some risk in its long term strategy to control data repositories. IBM has tried to rectify this weakness

by bringing some of enterprise assets used in the change / configuration management area into the telecom

vertical. CSPs are reluctant in pursuing this path because of unique requirements that exist in the telecom

market that are not needed in the enterprise segment.

6.3 Threats

IBM faces threats from obvious competitors such as Hewlett Packard (HP) but also increasingly from

network equipment suppliers such as Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networsk (NSN). IBM does not have

strategic partnerships with either Ericsson or NSN so we would view both of these companies as legitimate

competitors in opportunities for managed service contracts. NSN has ambitions to expand its multi-vendor

management solutions in the service assurance, fulfilment, and service delivery platform (SDP) domains. In

light of these new threats, we would consider both Ericsson and NSN as much more credible threats to the

Tivoli Netcool business.

6.4 Opportunities

IBM is among the few suppliers that are best positioned to manage larger transformational projects.

Although the current economic environment is not favorable for this type of opportunity, we believe that

business activity will increase in the next year. This will be driven by the next wave of technology

investments for mobile (access and core) and the migration to IP (core and aggregation networks). IBM is

effectively managing its NEPs channel which locks HP out of nextgen deals where NEPS serve as the prime

integrator.



IBM has a stronger position in fault and event and performance monitoring segments which, puts it into a

stronger position for service management projects. This is an area that encompasses managing the customer

experience which, has gained the attention of senior management in the past two years.

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Documents

ibm tivoli software

market position ibm

ibm software group

service assurance software

service assurance market

service management solutions

tivoli netcool solutions

tivoli netcool business