IBM takes pulse of green plans

IBM has used its Pulse conference in Orlando to make a number of announcements, ranging from new green ambitions to new systems management tools.

IBM's first announcement concerned its green ambitions, launched last year as Project Big Green. Software for a Greener World expands on that project and includes a number of new releases designed to lower both costs and the carbon footprint.

New products include Tivoli Monitoring, WebSphere Virtual Enterprise, and improvements to IBM Maximo Asset Management, Maximi Spatial, Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5, and IBM Active Energy Manager. New features offered by the firm include collaboration tools, better infrastructure performance management, and self-assessment tools that will help firms indentify green "starting points".

"The explosion of computers and networks have helped make the internet and computing what it is today, but mounting energy and environmental costs associated with the technology systems that comprise this infrastructure are taking their toll," said Al Zollar, general manager of Tivoli Software, IBM. " While most people think of energy conservation from a hardware perspective, increasingly it is actually software that is providing more options to go green across the entire organisation."

New data centre energy management software, IBM Tivoli Monitoring, also announced at Pulse will help firms cut energy costs and consumption, IBM said.

Next on IBM's agenda was new software and services targeted at firms looking to change the way they do business. “While IT organisations have automated some functions, the industrialisation of IT operations is still in its early stages, " said Al Zollar, general manager, IBM Tivoli Software. “IBM is in a unique position to provide the software, hardware and services to help clients move beyond siloed management to industrialised operations.”

Zollar told Pulse delegates that IBM could help guide them through a process of innovation that will increase the automation of many areas of their business, removing many of the time-consuming administrative problems faced by firms.

IBM Service Management can help businesses to automate service delivery, monitor and manage their applications and systems, and carry out health-check assessments, IBM said. Also announced was IBM Tivoli Service Request Manager, which is designed to ease service desk load and offers call management and routing functions.