SAN FRANCISCO--HP today unveiled a new HP OpenView tool for developers using the Eclipse open source framework that reduces the complexity of software development for multiple environments. HP OpenView Internet Usage Manager (IUM) collects network, system and service usage data and automates the analysis needed for planning, cost allocation or billing, yet each customer's collection needs and business policies can vary and require development of new system components or processing rules. The new HP OpenView IUM Component Development Environment simplifies the creation, editing, testing, debugging and deployment of IUM components. For enterprise software developers using the Eclipse framework, this can greatly improve productivity; for IUM customers, it can increase their ability to adapt their business support systems to changing business conditions. "Today's announcement demonstrates HP's long-standing commitment to open standards and our support for multiple computing environments as a board member of the Eclipse open source community," said Mike Rank, developer resource organization director, HP Enterprise Systems Group. "The HP OpenView IUM Component Development Environment delivers on our commitment to develop software solutions for today's business needs, including important technology that allows real-time management and optimization of IT assets from an integrated tool environment." Supported by a consortium of member companies, Eclipse is an open source community that creates interoperable technology, establishing a universal platform for software development tools integration. Planned to be available later this month for download by licensed IUM users, the new development environment makes it easier to build standards-based applications that can scale to meet the needs of an adaptive enterprise and improves productivity of developers building to HP's Darwin Reference Architecture specifications. A key component of the HP Adaptive Enterprise strategy to allow companies to demand more out of their IT environments and partners, the Darwin Reference Architecture is a framework to help businesses tackle one of the biggest challenges they face today -- creating a tighter linkage between critical business processes and the supporting IT infrastructure. With the introduction of the Darwin Reference Architecture last month, HP has provided customers and partners with a step-by-step approach to creating a business process-oriented IT environment that dynamically adjusts to business changes. Consistent with the charter of the Eclipse open source community, the reference architecture embraces industry standards, design principles, proven methodologies and key technologies from HP and industry partners. HP Provides Richer "Total Developer Experience" By incorporating the same look and feel of other development tools integrated in Eclipse, and by leveraging the Eclipse graphical user interface, the development environment reduces complexity involved with learning multiple development environments within an increasingly complex, heterogeneous, networked computing world. HP teams have collaborated to integrate the Eclipse development environment with the IUM Plug-In Development Kit (PDK) to streamline the full IUM component development cycle. By combining Eclipse's robust programming development environment and the IUM PDK, developers will be able to rapidly accelerate the creation of these custom extensions, making the total developer experience with IUM richer. HP OpenView Internet Usage Manager (IUM) provides a flexible, scalable application for collecting and analyzing usage data, enabling IT cost allocation in the enterprise and billing mediation for the service provider. IUM's open architecture and its optional Java PDK allow third parties -- whether independent software vendors or customers -- to create custom rules, encapsulators, parsers or application transaction classes to extend or enhance IUM functionality.