Big Blue strengthens systems management with acquisition

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.