IBM helps firms towards datacentre automation with upgraded provisioning system

IBM is furthering the efforts of firms to automate their datacentres with an upgraded version of its Tivoli Provisioning Manager (TPM).

The upgrade is a further step by IBM to help firms build large-scale, distributed, globally accessible datacentres, as part of its Blue Cloud strategy.

TPM plays an important role in helping IT organisations manage power consumption by switching servers to standby mode when not in use, which saves energy, and automatically restores them to active mode when needed.

TPM dynamically provisions and allocates resources to compensate for workload fluctuations, said IBM. These fluctuations can strain specific IT resources while other systems run at less than capacity, a problem cloud computing techniques can help resolve.

Chris O'Connor, vice-president of IBM Tivoli strategy and market management, said, "This new version of Tivoli Provisioning Manager enables our clients to simplify IT environments, further take advantage of virtualisation and realise the vision of cloud computing."

TPM 5.1.1 includes a variety of enhancements to expand the capabilities and benefits of automating common datacentre tasks, while providing interoperability to support diverse IT environments and varying levels of IT maturity.

IBM said the new capabilities help simplify software installation and improve distribution, monitor IT resources across an enterprise, and create reusable automation packages to perform complex tasks that can be used again later.