EMC announces ILM portfolio of services
Information storage and management vendor EMC Corporation in January unveiled a set of storage services aimed to help customers plan, build and manage an integrated information technology infrastructure to more cost-effectively manage and protect their information throughout its lifecycle. The new services, delivered by EMC’s Technology Solutions group, are intended to accelerate the implementation of information lifecycle management (ILM). The offerings include: ILM Workshops to help customers understand the basics of an infrastructure that enables management of information from creation through archiving or disposal; and ILM Assessment Services to help customers validate the potential benefits of information lifecycle management; and Storage Managed Services for fixed-term, service level-driven, on-site storage management. Assessment ILM Assessment Services. Each assessment is designed to be completed in four to six weeks and results in an ILM roadmap. The assessment services entail application alignment, recoverability assessment, operations assessment and infrastructure assessment. Dan Orr, EMC Canada’s director of technology solutions group, stressed matching the value of specific information to the type of storage managing it. “IT executives are faced with continued information growth, new regulations and an ever increasing focus on information protection,” he noted. “We help customers get maximum value from their information from the time it is created, until it is archived or disposed.”
Integrated analysis apps coming from Business Objects
Business Objects SA in January said it plans to release a unified set of data analysis and reporting tools next year, combining its business intelligence software with the products developed by Crystal Decisions Inc. San Jose-based Business Objects, which completed its acquisition of Crystal Decisions in December after announcing the deal in July, unveiled its road map for integrating the two product lines. It plans a three-step approach, beginning with the rollout of capabilities such as a joint software portal and common application programming interfaces for Web services. Those features are due by midyear and will be followed later in 2004 by platform-level integration support, Business Objects said. Eventually, users will get a single offering that has the dashboard, score-carding, and query, analysis and reporting tools that are embedded in Business Objects’ software plus the scalability and data delivery mechanisms that are part of Crystal Decisions’ reporting suite. The deal between Business Objects and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Crystal Decisions was one of two big merger agreements signed by data analysis vendors last summer. Business Objects and Hyperion Solutions Corp., which bought Brio Software Inc., are both looking to piece together more complete sets of analysis tools for corporate users. – Marc L. Songini, Computerworld (U.S.)
IBM aims software, service packages at financial firms
As part of its push to tailor its products for vertical industry customers, IBM Corp. released in February more than a dozen software-and-services packages customized for finance-industry customers. The 15 new bundles – five each for the banking, insurance, and financial services markets – represent the first wave of IBM’s industry-focused campaign, announced in December. The initiative is focused more on revamping IBM’s sales strategy than it is on new product development. In consulting projects over the last several years, the company has put together software solutions for many of the IT problems facing customers; its focus now is to sell those product sets and IBM’s accompanying services expertise to other customers working on similar projects, according to Doug Brown, director of industry marketing for IBM’s software group. The announced packages include bundles such as Risk and Compliance Foundation for financial services companies, Branch Transformation for banks, and Integrated Claims Management for insurers. The specific software components in each bundle vary, but many include portal technology, WebSphere Business Integration, and DB2 Information Integrator, Brown said. Collaboration applications from Lotus, security and systems management software from Tivoli, and development tools from Rational appear in some packages. – Stacy Cowley, IDG News
