IBM promises to ease datacentre management

IBM Systems Director VMControl promises better control over virtualised environments

IBM has taken the wraps off its latest software designed to help manage heterogeneous virtualised servers.

IBM Systems Director VMControl is aimed at helping datacentre managers better control virtualised environments across IBM System z mainframes, System x x86-based servers, BladeCenter and Power Systems AIX, Linux and System i platforms.

VMControl forms part of the IBM Systems Director family of software, and offers a common interface to help discover, display, monitor and locate virtual resources, according to IBM. It can also create and manage virtual servers, and deploy and manage workloads regardless of the combination of systems being used.

"IBM is serious about addressing clients' needs for virtualisation management," said Scott Handy, vice president of IBM Power Systems.

"The new VMControl software helps clients reduce total cost of ownership and provides them with the tools needed to better manage and get more business value out of their heterogeneous virtual computing environments."

IBM has also revealed that enterprise customers buying its Power 595 or Power 570 systems will be able to easily upgrade from the existing Power6 processors to the upcoming Power7 CPUs when they become available.

The chips, memory and system controllers are housed in processor 'books', and the upgrade can be performed simply by swapping out one book for another.

The 45nm Power7 processors will be available in four-, six- and eight-core varieties, and will offer double or even triple the performance of its predecessor, according to IBM.

Furthermore, the Power7-based systems will include PowerVM virtualisation enhancements, allowing IT managers to consolidate up to 1,000 virtual machines per system.