IBM teams up to make IT self-managing

New Delhi: IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced on Wednesday that a dozen key India-based solution providers will incorporate IBM's self-managing autonomic technology, based on open standards, into their software and solutions.

By working with IBM, these companies can deliver software that can radically automate and simplify IT management and the underlying systems, while reducing costs for their customers.

The India-based solution providers will build IBM self-managing technology into their offerings over the next six months as part of IBM's global Autonomic Computing Business Partner initiative.

IBM estimates that autonomic technologies can reduce IT administration costs by up to 40 per cent and increase IT utilisation by up to 25 per cent.

"Autonomic computing has risen to the top of the IT agenda for businesses in India," said Vice President for ISV and Developer Relations, IBM India R Dhamodaran. "IBM is helping solution providers quickly adopt self-managing autonomic technology, which is critical for customers trying to cut costs and remain competitive. In turn, as solution providers build IBM's autonomic technology into their offerings, they spur customer demand for products based on IBM middleware and open standards."

The partners will use the IBM Autonomic Computing Toolkit, which provides software, technology components, tools, scenarios, documentation and other resources to quickly add autonomic features to their offerings.

According to IT analyst firm IDC, India is the fastest growing IT market in Asia Pacific, with the domestic IT market estimated to grow 19 per cent in 2006.

As an emerging technology market, businesses in India are relying on more complex devices and infrastructures to conduct business – which translates to costly management burdens.

This announcement is the latest step in IBM's five-year autonomic computing initiative, which has worked to automate processes and build intelligence into systems themselves.

IBM has built the broadest portfolio of autonomic-enabled products, services and solutions in the industry, with 500 self-managing autonomic features in 75 distinct IBM products.

"IBM has dedicated autonomic computing resources at the IBM India Software Lab to specifically help enable business partners on IBM autonomic technologies," said IBM India Software Lab Vice President Harish K Grama. "Coupled with autonomic resources in the IBM Innovation Centers, India has played an instrumental role in the development and success of the IBM Autonomic Computing Toolkit."

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IBM has already teamed with more than 70 business partners around the world through its Autonomic Computing Business Partner initiative.

As part of IBM's commitment to help its partners succeed, the company provides technical support and marketing resources to help them expand their businesses and reach global markets.

New Autonomic Business Partners:The solution providers to join the IBM Autonomic Computing Business Partner initiative today include:

Bangalore-based independent software vendor, Silicon Plains (formerly Automated WorkFlow Group) is already delivering their business process management product to customers and is now aligning these products towards autonomic technology.

"By building self-managing technology into our software we can help our customers better position themselves for future growth, making their multi-vendor IT environments more manageable and productive," said Romil Turakhia, Chief of products and technology, from Silicon Plains, formerly Automated WorkFlow Group. "Our customers expressed a need for this technology and now, because of our partnership with IBM, we can deliver this capability."