That leaves framework vendors struggling to prove their usefulness, and point product makers striving to do more than just plug holes in frameworks. They all promise cure-all products, but no one can deliver one. "One-size-fits-all technology doesn’t exist. That’s not even true of pantyhose, never mind software," says Valerie O’Connell, a managing director at Aberdeen Group, a market research firm.

Frameworks that integrate point products will win, says Dave Ferree, an e-business director at Aptia, a systems integrator in San Jose. He points to RiverSoft’s recent licensing of its Network Management Operating System source code to HP for use in OpenView. This will give OpenView Layer 2 topology capabilities.

"This was a good move because now HP can develop that capability into its products quickly," says Paul Edmunds, senior network analyst at Duke Energy, which uses OpenView and runs point products.

Not so fast

But HP has gotten burned by teaming with a point product vendor, so other industry watchers aren’t ready to declare frameworks the long-term winners. They point out that some HP OpenView shops that purchased supplemental Tavve management tools eventually replaced the framework product, choosing instead to rely on the point offerings for performance, root cause analysis and other management issues.

"Tavve developed products to aid HP OpenView, but those products ultimately replaced OpenView," says Frank Dzubeck, principal at Communications Network Architects, an industry analysis firm. Brand loyalty may be a thing of the past, he adds.

Framework vendors must change the perception that their offerings are as big as their names and as cumbersome to implement, says John McConnell, president of McConnell Associates, a network management consulting firm. "A lot of care and feeding goes into frameworks," he says, and that’s when point products become appealing. Until, of course, the latest technology changes and users have to go shopping for more software. So both sides are putting together suites that address several needs at once.

But users can’t simply adorn their infrastructures with the latest management products and expect positive results, O’Connell says. They have to think beyond network management to systems and applications management, and strategically unify business goals with IT management to determine what product is best. And that’s not going to be simple. "Complexity is not going to be decreased by adding a forest of point products," she says.

O’Connell credits CA for getting product development right. It puts "all its products on the equal footing of Jasmine ii, going well beyond classic integration to architecture and design," she says. For example, the company recently released a suite of customer relationship management tools and integrated the new software with Jasmine ii, an e-business platform, and its Neugents technology. Because CA put Jasmine ii at the heart of all CA offerings, it doesn’t need to force-fit products into a current trend, she adds.

As an example on the point side, Concord will periodically be releasing application software modules for its eHealth Suite of network and system management products. The first module, AdvantEdge for Exchange, shipped in November. It adds functionality for monitoring and managing Microsoft Exchange groupware applications.

Multipurpose suites, as good as they might be, don’t really solve the bigger integration issue – something that can only be addressed through standards. But network management vendors are behind in adopting standards, Dzubeck points out. Framework vendors haven’t accepted that they must standardize for the network management market to move ahead, but they will if they keep losing business to point product vendors, he adds.

Some believe the saturated network management market has paved the way for management service providers (MSP). With staff shortages and time crunches, customers of all sizes consider outsourcing an option.

But like framework vendors and point product makers, MSPs will come on strong, promising to do everything for you. Chances are, rather than clarifying your choice, they’ll only muddy it more.