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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / MAY 26, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 21
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Systems/Enterprise:
IBM ACQUIRES THINK DYNAMICS
IBM recently announced that it has acquired Think Dynamics, a privately held
company headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
The acquisition closed May 15th, 2003. Financial details were not disclosed.
The Think Dynamics capability accelerates a critical element of IBM's strategy
to help customers respond more quickly to changing business needs -- such as
peaks in demand and potential system failures -- by dynamically allocating the
right computing resources at the right time to the right processes.
This type of automated systems management tied to business needs is known as
"orchestrated provisioning" and is a key component of IBM's e-business
on-demand strategy. Orchestrated provisioning allows customers to respond
quickly to business requirements and can free up a company's IT staff to focus
more on its core business needs.
Based on autonomic technology, orchestrated provisioning obtains real-time
feedback on the state of the IT environment, checks the status against
business policies, and makes changes by dynamically re-allocating a broad
variety of computing resources -- including servers, middleware, applications,
storage systems and network interfaces -- in an orchestrated and coordinated
manner. The software is extremely flexible, supports provisioning of multiple
platforms -- like Linux, Unix or Windows -- and enables the provisioning of
new systems and re-provisioning of existing IT resources.
"Think Dynamics product family is unique in the industry in that it is based
on key standards, such as Web services and Open Grid Services Architecture
(OGSA), which allow customers to automatically and dynamically provision
resources based on the unique policies and processes of their business," said
Irving Wladawsky-Berger, general manager e-business on demand. "By acquiring a
leading provider of provisioning software, IBM will bring customers a
platform-agnostic solution that further unlocks the value of an on demand
infrastructure."
The Think Dynamics capability changes the business response from "just in
case" provisioning, where expensive resources such as such as systems reserved
for workload spikes sit idle "just in case" they are needed, to "on demand"
provisioning, in which resources that support lower priority work can be
dynamically re-allocated to meet urgent needs of higher priority work in
minutes. The result for customers will be an on demand technology that aligns
IT more closely with business priorities, reducing costs through increased
efficiency and better utilization of current IT investments. In addition, it
works with existing resources, so there is no need to "rip and replace" any of
a customer's computing systems.
For example, a bank running an online financing promotion within a traditional
IT environment might need to begin preparing months in advance for the
potential surge in Web traffic. IT personnel would identify and manually
prepare servers, middleware and other technology to manage resources according
to IT policy, which dictates that when an IT system reaches its defined
utilization threshold, additional resources must be brought online to balance
the workload. Orchestrated provisioning can automate this process, eliminating
guesswork. Sensing that a server has reached its peak utilization level,
appropriate resources would be located and deployed, sharing the workload. New
resources would be added as needed, and then re-deployed back to their normal
state after the promotion ends and Web traffic decreases.
"The ability to automatically and dynamically manage IT resources will help
customers get more value out of their technology investments," said Robert
LeBlanc, general manager, IBM Tivoli Software. "With the acquisition of Think
Dynamics, a leader in IT resource provisioning, IBM is continuing to deliver
technologies that support our automation strategy, and that help our customers
make the transformation into on demand businesses."
"With IBM's development strength and product support, we'll be able to take
our product family to a new level and help customers manage their IT
environments more efficiently than ever," said Duncan Hill, founder and chief
strategist, Think Dynamics. "The blending of the Think Dynamics capability
with IBM's presence, leadership and resources, will create a powerful
combination in the provisioning space."
The Think Dynamics team will be integrated immediately into IBM Software Group
under the Tivoli brand and leveraged by IBM Systems Group, TotalStorage and
IBM Global Services.
IBM Global Services' incorporation of orchestrated provisioning capabilities
will enable organizations to more rapidly achieve the promise of utility
computing -- accessing processing power and applications where and when a
customer needs them. Customers may choose to build it on their own, have IBM
build it for them or leverage IBM utility services on an ongoing basis to
provide their company IT and business functions on demand. This capability
will be supported via IGS' Utility Management Infrastructure (UMI), which
allows companies to begin benefiting from utility computing today by enabling
them to integrate and run e-business processes and related applications on a
dynamic, consolidated infrastructure.
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