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New IBM Software Bolsters Mainframe As Service Management Hub for Businesses

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 February 2008, 12:00 CST

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today extended its multi-million dollar commitment to simplify the mainframe by announcing a new, integrated set of software offerings that provides a process automation and Service Management infrastructure to make better use of the mainframe's vast power for tackling business challenges.

The new IBM Tivoli Service Management Center for System z, part of the IBM Service Management portfolio, automates the management of complex IT disciplines and allows policy driven processes such as incident and problem management, change and release, discovery and business service management to be seamlessly managed from either mainframe or distributed computing environments. In so doing, it extends service management and process automation benefits across enterprise assets and the datacenter, better equipping clients to address business mandates -- from explicitly tying IT performance to business goals, reducing IT costs, meeting security, regulatory and compliance requirements and improving customer satisfaction.

The offering combines industry standard process automation best practices, based on the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), with internally developed software, including IBM Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database, IBM Tivoli Application Dependency Discovery Manager, IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager, IBM Tivoli Service Request Manager and IBM Tivoli Enterprise Portal. The integration between these products is designed to eliminate "silos" of applications and deliver a combined view into business applications and the overall data center.

Customers stand to benefit from a single, integrated view of critical applications hosted on their mainframes, discovering, controlling and showing the linkages between IT assets and business applications, then enabling them to monitor the overall service delivery provided by IT in support of business objectives. Clients may customize this view to support various functions including, among others, application mapping, relationship discovery, business services, services requests, finance, security, IT production, support and operational control.

"The IBM Tivoli Service Management Center, when used in conjunction with our new z10 platform or existing mainframes, will give clients a new, integrated environment that provides greater visibility, automation and control into discovery, incident and problem management in one common service management infrastructure across their businesses," said Chris O'Connor, vice president, strategy and market management, IBM Tivoli. "The primary value of this new offering is the ability to develop role-based processes and views to proactively manage technology and business objectives and implement improved service management across a business of any size and scope."

The newly integrated portfolio of offerings takes advantage of autonomic capabilities and provides improved functionality to support various challenges faced by data center and facility management leaders. Some of the benefits include:

     Business Service Management -- Integrating IBM Tivoli Business Service     Manager and IBM Tivoli Application Discovery and Dependency Manager to     provide end-to-end discovery of processes, availability, management,     status and control when an application is added, becomes unavailable     or is violating a service level agreement.     Financial Management -- Aligning IT with business goals, justifying IT     expenses and understanding the cost of shared resources. It also     includes integrating IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager with IBM     Tivoli Decision Support software to provide cost allocation based on     IT resource use. In addition, organizations can effectively manage     their IT asset lifecycle to lower cost and reduce license compliance     exposure across their enterprises through Tivoli Asset Management for     IT, Tivoli License Compliance Manager for z/OS and Tivoli License     Compliance Manager.     Security Management -- Providing security visibility and reporting     capabilities across multiple technology platforms as new compliance     standards, acquisitions, business expansion and technologies are     introduced. The Tivoli Service Management Center for System z can     provide one view into security, audit and compliance management     software such as IBM Tivoli zSecure, IBM Tivoli Compliance Insight     Manager, IBM Tivoli Identity Manager, IBM Tivoli Access Manager and     IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager.     Operations and Support -- Delivering optimal performance and service     level agreement adherence through a comprehensive view of mainframe     operations by integrating IBM Tivoli Enterprise Portal with IBM Tivoli     NetView, IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON, IBM Tivoli Composite Application     Manager, IBM Tivoli System Automation and IBM Tivoli Workload     Scheduler. Benefits include increased visibility, expert advice and     automation support of system performance, network performance and     critical business applications.     Operations and Support -- The ability to detect, report and resolve     operations and support incidents is paramount to ensuring optimal     compliance with service level agreements and performance. The IBM     Tivoli Service Management Center for System z includes focused     visibility, expert advice and automation support of system     performance, network performance, incident and problem management,     discovery, and critical business applications through a comprehensive     view of mainframe operations by the integration of IBM Tivoli     Enterprise Portal with IBM Tivoli NetView, IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON, IBM     Tivoli Composite Application Manager, IBM Tivoli System Automation and     IBM Tivoli Workload Scheduler. 

The IBM Tivoli Service Management Center for System z will be available beginning in the second quarter of 2008.

IBM's Five-Year March to Mainframe Simplification

Announced in October of 2006, IBM launched a cross-company effort to make the IBM System z mainframe -- the world's most sophisticated business computer -- easier to use for a greater number of computer professionals by 2011. The goal of this five-year effort, which will include an investment of more than $100 million, is to enable technology administrators and computer programmers to more easily program, manage and administer a mainframe system -- as well as to increasingly automate the development and deployment of applications for the mainframe environment. The initiative, involving a team of hardware and software experts, leverages IBM's expertise in automation and systems management.

For more information on IBM Tivoli and System z, please visit www.ibm.com/tivoli and www.ibm.com/systems/z/.

 Press Contact: Lon Levitan IBM Media Relations 512-823-0404 llevitan@us.ibm.com

SOURCE: IBM

Source: MARKET WIRE

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