IBM
The purchase, to be rolled into the Tivoli division, is a certain feather in
Irving Wladawsky-Berger, general manager e-business on demand, said one of Wednesday moved to
shore up its on-demand e-business strategy Wednesday by buying
privately-held software maker Think Dynamics for an undisclosed sum.
Toronto’s Think Dynamics makes software that addresses computing demand
peaks and system failures by allocating resources at the right time before a
system is stalled. Also known as orchestrated or dynamic provisioning, this
technology keeps computer systems up and running despite duress.
the cap of Armonk, N.Y.’s IBM, which has been lauding its autonomic
computing strategy for software that steps up to save systems from potential
downtime caused by network glitches. More broadly, the coup is a win in an
increasingly crowded utility computing space, where vendors are offering
enterprises software and services on a metered, pay-as-you-go basis.
IBM’s competitors in this space include Sun
Microsystems, HP, Computer
Associates and Veritas
Software, the latter three of whom have made utility computing
announcements this month. Sun is also girding its N1 strategy to join the
battle.
Summit Strategies Senior Analyst John Madden said the purchase was a smart one for Big Blue.
“IBM’s whole on-demand strategy is based around three dimensions from a technology point of view — virtualization, automation and integration,” Madden said. “This fits well into the automation dimension, and is a very logical deal for IBM. The company is putting a high degree of investment into Tivoli to make on-demand businesses work, and this deal will help accelerate some of the development along those lines.”
Think Dynamics, whose relationship with IBM dates back a few years to when
Big Blue was working on its eLiza project (which morphed into autnomic
computing), also enjoyed partnerships with major vendors such as HP, EMC and
Oracle. Its provisioning software culls real-time feedback on computer
systems, checks the status against business policies, and reallocates
servers, middleware, applications, storage systems and network interfaces to
the areas that need them.
This philosophy is one of proactive computing systems that address network
needs before a failure can occur. The software from Think Dynamics, which
supports Linux, Unix and Windows, is platform-agnostic and works with
whatever resources a company has so IT staffs don’t have to “rip and
replace” their systems.
IBM provided an example of how a bank might use Think Dynamics’ software.
Traditionally, IT personnel anticipating increased Web traffic would
manually shore up servers, middleware and other technology to manage
resources according to need.
Provisioning software automates this process, letting servers share
workloads. New resources would be added as needed and then re-deployed back
to their original state after Web traffic decreases.
Robert LeBlanc, general manager, IBM Tivoli software, said in a conference
call that IBM and Think Dynamics have been working together some time, and
that they decided the marriage makes sense.
“The combination of the IBM team and the Think Dynamics team helps us extend IBM in the world of provisioning. We believe this will help us build out and become the leading solution in the market for on-demand computing,” LeBlanc said.
LeBlanc said firms often subscribe to blanket provisioning software and services, which he thinks aren’t cost-effective. “We want dynamic
provisioning to be about more than ‘just in case’ or overprovisioning.”
the reasons his firm took interest in Think Dynamics is that it is based on
key standards, such as Web services, J2EE, and Open Grid Services
Architecture (OGSA). The fact that Think Dynamics is platform-agnostic is a
plus, too.
“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,” Wladawsky-Berger.
Think Dynamics’ workers will be transferred to IBM’s facility in Canada. IBM
is expected to launch new Tivoli software based on the Think Dynamics
products. The software will also be used by IBM’s Systems Group and its
Global Services division.
IBM Thinks ‘Dynamics’ to Boost On-demand Play
