CiRBA last week announced the latest version of its data center consolidation software, which includes enhanced support for virtualized environments and expanded system audit capabilities.

CiRBA 3.1 lets enterprise-size businesses identify how server consolidation and virtualization can help their environments. The product analyzes configuration and workload data and identifies consolidation opportunities within the data center. The software compares every server to every other server. Workloads running on every server are also compared to other servers and a 'what if' analysis is performed that can result in the redistribution of workloads to suit better server utilization (for more about the technique of virtual server management see "Managing the virtual realm".)

The company cites research from Forrester showing the effects of consolidation. According to Forrester, Windows servers run at 8% to 12% of their capacity and Unix servers use only 25% to 30% of their capacity.

CiRBA 3.1 includes statistical analysis of diversity and consolidation potential. The product now detects virtual machines running VMware and reports on the physical vs. virtual software inventory breakdown by operating system.

The software now also supports Dell OpenManage, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005 and Java Management Extensions (JMX).

In addition, a series of new reports identify configuration items that are different or deviate from the norm.

CiRBA supports Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Linux, Windows, IBM OS/400, SQL-compliant systems, SNMP- and Windows Management Instrumentation- (WMI-) compliant systems and devices.

The company counts among its customers Bell Mobility, Aetna and Rogers Wireless. It was founded in 1999 by Riyaz Somani, formerly of Opensoft and Andrew Hillier, a developer of Sun Management Center add-ons. CiRBA is an acronym for configuration item request broker architecture.

CiRBA 3.1 is licensed on a monthly basis by the number of audit targets. An audit target may be a server, operating system, application, database or virtual machine. The license cost is $8 per month per target.