IBM Tuesday built on its System z10 mainframe news with the introduction of a set of integrated software applications designed to enable process automation and IT service management across its System z10 platform and distributed computing environments. Management rival CA also announced it would support IBM's z10 Enterprise Class platform.

Tivoli Service Management Center for System z is part of IBM's greater service management portfolio that enables policy-driven process management across IT environments. The software suite incorporates best practices laid out in ITIL and updates several existing IBM Tivoli management software applications -- such as Change and Configuration Management Database, Application Dependency Discovery Manager, Business Service Manager, Service Request Manager and Enterprise Portal -- with the process automation capabilities to manage business applications across IT silos, IBM says.

IBM integrated and bundled several applications together to address specific pain points customers might face. For instance, customers could handle financial management needs such as department chargeback by using the newly integrated IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager and Decision Support software products to get an idea of IT resource use and how to allocate costs based on usage. And for security management on the mainframe, IBM integrated Tivoli zSecure, Compliance Insight Manager, Identity Manager Access Manager and Federated Identity Manager.

According to industry watchers, IBM's upgraded mainframe platform will resonate with many IT buyers looking to move distributed workloads over to the mainframe to save money and optimize resources.

"Due to economic uncertainty … they are looking at potential net positive cost savings and utilization impact. The IT mantra 'do more with less' is alive and well," says Stephen Elliot, a research director covering enterprise system management at IDC. "Mainframe continues to play a major role with mission critical applications; it's a safe bet, and in uncertain times IT staff will not get fired for choosing mainframe. It's reliable and often process is built in -- making it a solid compliance play."

Plus, with a renewed interest in running business-critical applications on the mainframe, Elliot says IT service management software that can work across both mainframe and distributed computing environments is a must for enterprise IT shops. For IT leaders looking to simplify how they manage complex systems and reduce the number of vendors they must contract with, IBM is providing a set of integrated tools that manage across mainframe and distributed environments.

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