IBM's BigFix purchase bears fruit

IBM's new suite is likely to appeal to major retailers and banking firms

IBM has released new systems management software derived from its purchase of BigFix last month.

The BigFix Unified Management Software Platform maps the number of client devices, as well as any virtual systems, on a network and checks that they are operating within compliance settings nominated by IT management. Remote device control monitoring and updating is also included.

“As organisations become increasingly more complex, virtualised and distributed, it's critical for them to take proactive steps to secure and manage their IT environment in a consolidated and automated way," said Amrit Williams, chief technology officer of BigFix technology at IBM.

"With BigFix's new virtualisation and interface breakthroughs, IT staff can better manage and secure their IT environments."

The software is designed to help large-scale enterprises in managing up to hundreds of thousands of systems at a time and includes a new management console that allows the sorting of systems by role as well as type; for example allowing easy customisation of all firewall or endpoint security devices.

The monitoring of virtual systems has also been enhanced and the software can be used to fine-tune the resources allocated to such operating environments to meet supply.

“This announcement reflects the opportunity inherent in the BigFix acquisition,” Charles King, chief analyst at Pund-IT, told V3.co.uk.

“The slicing and dicing into individual systems so they can be ranked by function and type looks to make management a lot easier, and the improved virtualisation is important. In both cases I do think those features will be very helpful and give interesting new opportunities.”

King argued that the software would be most useful in specific vertical sectors, such as retail and banking, where large numbers of systems and point-of-sale hardware needed to be controlled.