Management's numbers game

I've always believed I was destined to write about management software, based mostly on the fact that the management software market is dominated by four vendors and four is my favorite number. Think what you will.

But lately challengers to BMC, CA, HP and IBM have been threatening to change the perfect number four into six, seven or more. Vendors such as EMC, Symantec, Microsoft and even Cisco say they will shake up the market so much that the big four will find themselves at the bottom of the list. And smaller management software makers continue to make noise about how company size doesn't matter all that much if the software doesn't work.

Unfortunately for these challengers the big four management software makers seem to have woken up to the issues customers had with their products. BMC, CA, HP and IBM have all begun addressing ease of use, integration and practical applications of the broad set of technologies each has to offer. Industry watchers are impressed.

"I don't buy it that the status of the big four is going to change substantially," says Andi Mann, research director with Enterprise Management Associates. "Each has gone through their rough patches, but all recover and have strengths in different areas."

For now, it seems my destiny is secure.