IBM's Organic SAP Initiative

IBM's Answer To Fujitsu FlexFrame Makes Its Appearance

by Richard Fichera, February 8, 2005

With the introduction of Fujitsu FlexFrame offering for SAP, Forrester predicted that competing vendors would quickly follow suit.1 In announcing IBM Dynamic Infrastructure for mySAP Business Suite, IBM joins Fujitsu in offering a set of infrastructure . . .

Decoding Grid Technology

How To Understand Grid In Relation To Organic IT And Utility Computing

by Frank E. Gillett, January 20, 2005

Hype about grid technology has grown, with new standards bodies and informational Web sites joining grid pioneers from the late 1990s. Grid has many meanings and claimed benefits, so how are users supposed to figure out what it means for them? Forrester . . .

VERITAS Adds ILM To Its Utility Computing Vision

KVS Acquisition Brings A Leading Archiving Product — And A Foundation For ILM

by Galen Schreck, September 2, 2004

VERITAS Software has announced that it will acquire KVS in an all-cash transaction worth $225 million. KVS has built a successful business fueled by firms' need to maintain regulatory compliance while reducing overall storage costs. On September 30, KVS' . . .

VERITAS Acquires Invio For IT Process Automation

by Galen Schreck, July 19, 2004

VERITAS has announced plans to acquire privately-held Invio in a deal worth $35 million — VERITAS' fourth utility computing-related acquisition since it began building its portfolio with Jareva and Precise in December 2002. Today, Invio markets an extensible . . .

IT Cost Cutting Is Still A High Priority

by Galen Schreck, Frank E. Gillett, June 25, 2004

Forrester surveyed 149 US firms about their IT priorities for this year and beyond. The majority still say that their top short-term priority is reducing the cost of IT. When asked about future plans for 2005, lowering business and IT labor costs takes . . .

Veritas Acquires Ejasent - Building Its Utility Computing Portfolio

by Richard Fichera, January 26, 2004

Current VERITAS customers should definitely continue to monitor the company¿s progress, and when the program becomes more clearly instantiated in product and service offerings, VERITAS could emerge as a top-tier competitor for many enterprise applications

IBM Orchestrator - Changing the Dynamics of On-Demand Computing

by Richard Fichera, November 26, 2003

IBM¿s announcement of Tivoli Intelligent ThinkDynamic Orchestrator and Provisioning Manager introduces a radical change into the competitive landscape surrounding organic IT, particularly the ability to provide policy-based automation of applications.

Variable-Use Service Models: The Impact of Pay-Per-Use Contract Terms

by Colin Rankine, Bill Martorelli, July 28, 2003

The problems inherent in variable-price service delivery are not intractable if considerable care is taken in devising measures that align the interests of customer and service provider.

IBM's On Demand Operating Environment Is Organic

by Frank E. Gillett, Ted Schadler, June 2, 2003

Recent product announcements, strategy updates, and an important acquisition make it clear that IBM is serious about Organic IT. Firms should check out IBM's products and services for on demand assessments but put business transformation where it belongs . . .

Small Buy, Big Impact: IBM Buys Think Dynamics

by Laura Koetzle, Galen Schreck, Charles Rutstein, Frank E. Gillett, May 16, 2003

With its acquisition of Think Dynamics, IBM significantly bolsters the On Demand story. Once the new products are integrated, IBM will offer On Demand buyers a credible choice between products and services, plus new heterogeneous capabilities for complex . . .

From Silicon to Services: Understanding IBM's On Demand Agenda

by Bill Martorelli, May 5, 2003

IBM's On Demand agenda has emerged as a unifying strategy across the entire spectrum of IBM products and services, manifestations of which will range from storage and servers through high-end business process and consulting services.

What Constitutes an 'On Demand' Outsourcing Transaction?

by Bill Martorelli, March 27, 2003

IBM's emerging On Demand approach to outsourcing carries some risk. Nevertheless, the potential value is significant: the fixed-cost portion typically represents two-thirds or more of an IT organization's total spending.

Utility Computing: Understanding the Limitations and Sorting Out the Value

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., November 19, 2002

Even IBM's $10 Billion Won't Ensure Seamless Utility-Based Computing

by Bill Martorelli, November 18, 2002

IBM's $10 billion investment in utility-based On Demand computing strategy is, like the principal utility-based strategies of its rivals, long on vision and short on coherence. Nevertheless, IBM customers are achieving benefits using constituent parts.

Evaluating Utility Computing Architectures

by Thomas Mendel, Ph.D., November 7, 2002

Vendors in the utility computing space must follow up their initial announcements with (1) clear messages about how their approach differs, (2) product road maps that show when functionality will be available and (3) ROI calculations.

The Limited Efficiencies of Utility Computing Architectures

by Will Cappelli, November 6, 2002

There is no question that the move from intradomain to interdomain optimization will indeed reduce inefficiencies. Nonetheless, expectations should not be raised too high.

The Long and Winding Road to Utility Computing

by Jean-Pierre Garbani, November 6, 2002

While the concept of utility computing is certainly appealing, today's implementations are simply not worth the complexity and cost involved. Better results can be achieved by implementing manual management processes.

IBM Announces on Demand Operating Environment: Flexible Platform to Enable Dynamic E-Business

by Mike Gilpin, Richard Fichera, November 5, 2002

As the e-business On Demand strategy is implemented in the next few years, Giga expects IBM to be a leading player in the market for these more flexible, modular, self-managing service-oriented platforms.

IBM Charts A Course To On-Demand Infrastructure

by Ted Schadler, Charles Rutstein, October 30, 2002

Today, IBM CEO Sam Palmisano announced IBM's new strategy to support customers with "on-demand infrastructure." Forrester applauds IBM's commitment to transform infrastructure pricing to help companies better match IT investment to business returns.

Utility Service Pricing: Enterprise Pitfalls

by Will Cappelli, October 23, 2002

Equitable cost allocation is effectively a myth, given the current state of IT infrastructures and application portfolios, no matter how that allocation is executed.

Hewlett-Packard's Relationship With Terraspring Is No Longer Exclusive

by Will Cappelli, October 16, 2002

Recently, Terraspring has begun to strike alliances with a number of Hewlett-Packard's (HP) competitors, in particular with IBM, and there is some concern that Terraspring's new relationships could undermine the viability of HP's offering.

Chargeback and Utility Computing

by Will Cappelli, September 30, 2002

It is possible to associate a rated unit with a user's consumption and cut a bill reflecting the number of units generated during a specific period. However, Giga believes such as bill is not economically meaningful to either the buyer or the seller.

Capacity Planning for Utility Computing Is Not Simple

by Will Cappelli, September 26, 2002

One of the claims made by vendors of utility computing enabling software is that capacity planning for such environments is comparatively easy. Unfortunately, this argument is fallacious.

Defining Utility Computing and Utility Services

by Adria Ferguson, August 8, 2002

Utility computing is an offering that could benefit many organizations, especially companies with low server utilization rates, high seasonality and variable capacity demands.

IBM's Linux Virtual Services: A Step, but Only a Step, Toward Utility Computing Services

by Joel Yaffe, July 9, 2002

Although the service offering is touted as a utility, the reality is somewhat less utopian; contract terms for the offering require minimum usage commitments and a term length of at least 12 months.