BT Computing Partners to use Micromuse software

BT Computing Partners may have a second reason for selecting Micromuse to monitor the internal network operations of parent company British Telecommunications (BT).

The avowed reason the BT unit chose the software is to maintain the availability and reliability of its network-based business services and solutions for its parent company. Less obvious, but a possibility down the road, is that the software will serve as the foundation of a wider ranging opportunity BT Computing Partners will assume as it begin providing external consulting for BT customers.

“They’re using [Micromuse] Netcool/Impact to provide effective service information and correlation across their various platforms to allow them to understand the impact of networks on the various different parts of BT’s computing infrastructure,” said Tom Brittle, technical account manager for Micromuse UK.

Within the BT structure, BT Computing Partners is beginning to “look more like a service provider,” Brittle said. Thus, it would not be a stretch for BT Computing Partners to offer that expertise externally to BT’s wide-reaching customer base.

“Certainly the next stage for BT Computing Partners is providing external consultancy and deployment and possibly management for BT’s customers,” he said. “That would be available to them. They haven’t fleshed [that strategy] out.”

Immediately, however, BT Computing Partners will use the software for “full management and consolidation across the wide area networks that they run for BT both in the U.K. and globally,” Brittle said. These networks include “the data centers that support an awful lot of the IT infrastructure for BT office automation, as well as other operational support systems,” he said.

Micromuse is providing only the software and no further technical help, because “there is a very good level of skills” at BT Computing Partners and “they’ve done the integration and maintenance and management themselves,” Brittle said.