IBM has acquired IT resource management company
Collation to improve its systems management portfolio.
The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, will see Big Blue add
Collation’s technology to its Tivoli systems management software
suite.
Collation’s software automatically captures information about IT
resources, such as servers, applications and databases, and
displays it on a detailed map.
IBM said this enables IT staff to understand better the impact
of changes to an IT environment – such as how a security patch can
trigger a “domino effect” of unexpected problems.
It also helps reduce the time it takes to discover and correct a
problem, said IBM.
“Without a solid understanding of how different pieces of the IT
puzzle fit together, a single change can slow down or halt an
entire system,” said Al Zollar, general manager of IBM Tivoli
Software.
“Collation software allows companies to visualise different
change scenarios so they can analyse the implications before
problems occur,” he said.
Collation technology will become part of the IBM Tivoli Change
and Configuration Management Database, a service management
platform that provides a single view across multiple sources of IT
information.