On February 12, 2003, BMC Software disclosed that it would cap research and development investment in the PATROL Storage Manager (PSM) product, its combination SAN management and storage resource management (SRM) software for open systems. In an executive management review, BMC Software decided that its development investment expenses would be better used in other parts of the company. BMC Software also stated that the SRM market is currently unattractive to them, as there are many competitors in this marketplace. BMC Software will continue to develop its PATROL Knowledge Modules for storage arrays and storage networking devices, and will continue to develop its MAINVIEW SRM product for IBM mainframe systems. BMC has not stated what it will do with the intellectual property contained in PSM.
In January 2003, BMC released a new version of PSM, version 2.2 that combined the SAN management and SRM function into one product. In addition, at the same time, it bundled all its Knowledge Modules for storage arrays into a single package sold for one price, and bundled all its Knowledge Modules for storage networking hardware (switches, etc.) into a single package sold for one price. BMC will continue to support PSM version 2.2 for some time in the future.
Evaluator Group comments
This is a surprise move by BMC Software, yet hints at this type of move were given at the quarterly earnings conference call on January 23, 2003. By essentially withdrawing from the SAN management and SRM marketplaces, BMC positions itself for alliances or partnerships with other vendors who have SAN management software or SRM software, or both. BMC may incorporate portions of the PSM intellectual property into some of their larger system management solutions. BMC may also sell or license PSM to other vendors, but without the accompanying Knowledge Modules it may be of limited value.
We have been stating that some vendors will drop out of the SAN Management and SRM software marketplace, as there are currently too many competitors for the marketplace to support. This "shakeout" is a normal part of the business cycle, and is common to many industries, not just the computer storage industry.
We expect that customers who have selected PATROL Storage Manager will continue to have support for this product for 18 to 24 months.
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