IBM has previewed new mainframe management software that will help customers handle and secure the surge of new business processes and transactions running on services oriented architectures (SOAs) that are making the IBM System z mainframe the hub of Internet-based computing.

Given the rise in SOA adoption, it is becoming more important that mainframe workloads and resources be managed to simplify integration and lower cost. IBM's new software - based in part on technology acquired by IBM in 2004 from Candle and Cyanea - includes all the tools customers need to make System z, already the most secure platform in the world, the hub of their SOA management infrastructure.

The role of the mainframe has changed from a platform for mainstay business applications to a hub for core Internet-based business services - such as order processing and customer service - that use the hundreds of petabytes of data running on the world's mainframe computers. New applications and services are continually boosting the number and variety of workloads, and the complexity of transactions, running on mainframe systems - more than 60 per cent of IBM's current mainframe revenue comes from new workloads driven by IT trends such as virtualisation, Linux and SOA. By using mainframes to free up, secure and use information stored in applications, customers can ensure that they are providing as much availability, security and efficiency as possible.

IBM highlighted the following new software, which will become available in the second half of 2006:

• Tivoli Federated Identity Manager for z/OS introduces federated identity management to mainframe computing environments. This helps businesses collaborate securely by managing identities and resources that span multiple companies and trading partners and also secures network traffic across firewalls. Since federated identity management spans both distributed and mainframe environments, customers no longer have to manage SOA security in different areas of their IT environment, which is time consuming. It also enables businesses to improve customer service someone logging on to a bank's website can see information supplied by different financial services companies - checking account balance, recent stock purchases and mutual fund balances - because their identity is federated across those companies.
  
• Tivoli Composite Application Manager enables customers to diagnose IT problems without having to waste time switching between management tools. The software detects problems within component-based, or "composite" applications, which companies are using to link multi-part logistics, procurement and credit approval processes that involve different parts of an IT infrastructure. IBM's new software can automatically monitor, analyse and resolve problems regardless of their cause. For example, if a customer logs into a bank's website to change an address but is unable to do so, the software follows the request from the user to the transaction to the location where the data is stored to find where the problem resides, and then automatically corrects it.
  
• Tivoli Workload Scheduler allows "batch" workloads, which are computing jobs submitted to queues and scheduled for processing, to run across SOA-enabled mainframe, distributed, and grid computing environments. The software sends batch workloads to available servers and networks without manual intervention and extends to entire networks of batch applications running on multiple mainframe and distributed platforms. An insurance company can ensure that workloads are dispersed across its mainframes so that servers can run at optimum capacity. Since IBM's new software is based on open standards, it can be customised by different software vendors and developers.
  
• Tivoli OMEGAMON XE, based on Candle technology, can diagnose IT problems across applications, middleware and systems that are not yet SOA-enabled. The software provides a detailed analysis of different operating systems, databases, storage, networks and infrastructure software including z/OS, DB2, Linux, z/OS and WebSphere. The software uses new "Dynamic Workspace Linking" technology, presented via an intelligent management console, that can automatically move through various monitoring applications in the system to find the root cause of a problem, without requiring an IT specialist to intervene.

The new Tivoli software is part of IBM's IT service management offerings, which automate and simplify the way companies manage IT infrastructures. It is integrated with the IBM Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database, which allows infrastructures to share information. IBM's offerings are guided by ITIL, a set of best practices and standards established by an international forum and representing many years of cross-industry experience in system management. IBM is a key participant in evolving the ITIL work and has contributed significant amounts of intellectual property to this effort.

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