HP Layoffs: GroundWork Open Source Smells Blood

Sometimes, bad or stressful news for one company spells opportunity for another. Consider the situation at GroundWork Open Source, a systems management company that competes with Hewlett-Packard OpenView. Apparently, GroundWork Open Source is looking to capitalize on the layoff news out of HP. Here’s a look.

GroundWork says its systems management platform can deliver an 87 percent total cost savings vs. OpenView over a three-year period. Sure, the research was sponsored by GroundWork.

But GroundWork’s sense of timing — announcing the research a day after the HP layoff news — was dramatic and savvy.

Frankly, The VAR Guy is surprised HP has ignored opportunities to position OpenView for emerging markets such as the managed services industry. And now, a growing list of software companies — from GroundWork to Nimsoft — promotes lower-cost alternatives to OpenView.

Reality Check

The VAR Guy isn’t suggesting that VARs and service providers will completely abandon OpenView and other traditional enterprise management platforms (BMC, CA, IBM Tivoli).

However, GroundWork has successfully recruited a few OpenView partners. And Nimsoft has announced record growth in recent quarters.

Translation: HP better not get too distracted by its own layoffs, because rivals in the systems management market smell blood.