IBM buys IT resource-tracking company

Looking to add financial-management services to its IT-management products, IBM last week announced it would acquire CIMS Lab, which makes software that tracks the use of computing resources in virtualized technology environments.

With this software acquisition, its 12th since the start of 2005, IBM picks up more management tools for its Tivoli division and rounds out its virtualization offerings. The deal will equip IBM with the technology to gather usage data from multiple IT resources - servers, storage, networks, databases, applications and operating systems - and attach a financial value to it. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The CIMS Lab software collects usage data and associates a cost with it, IBM says. According to an IBM press release, the software "can help companies understand more easily how their technology resources are being consumed," specifically across virtualized environments.

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Looking to add financial-management services to its IT-management products, IBM last week announced it would acquire CIMS Lab, which makes software that tracks the use of computing resources in virtualized technology environments.

With this software acquisition, its 12th since the start of 2005, IBM picks up more management tools for its Tivoli division and rounds out its virtualization offerings. The deal will equip IBM with the technology to gather usage data from multiple IT resources - servers, storage, networks, databases, applications and operating systems - and attach a financial value to it. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The CIMS Lab software collects usage data and associates a cost with it, IBM says. According to an IBM press release, the software "can help companies understand more easily how their technology resources are being consumed," specifically across virtualized environments.

CIMS Lab's operations, located in Roseville, Calif., will be integrated into IBM's Tivoli division, which is under the direction of General Manager Al Zollar. Its software will be integrated with IBM Tivoli's IT service-management portfolio, giving Big Blue an accounting and chargeback product. HP acquired similar technology with its purchase of Peregrine Systems last year; in November, CA detailed how it would add financial and accounting features to its Asset Management 11 software.

"Keeping tabs on IT costs is daunting for any organization facing a maze of platforms and systems that traditionally have been tracked separately and manually," Zollar said in a press release. "CIMS Lab software helps companies take control of their IT costs, a key advantage of IT service management."

The CIMS Lab technology will be incorporated across IBM's software, hardware and services, the company says. Immediate plans are to ship the technology with IBM Director, "complementing the virtualization capabilities of xSeries eServers and pSeries eServers."

IDC estimates that spending on virtualization will grow to nearly $15 billion worldwide by 2009.

IBM says it plans to sell CIMS Lab software products through IBM's worldwide sales channels and IBM Business Partners. CIMS Lab has more than 170 customers worldwide.

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