IBM Keeps Midsize Organizations Flexible with New Offerings for Dynamic Infrastructure

ARMONK, N.Y., Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced a comprehensive portfolio of offerings to help midsize businesses reduce cost, improve service and manage risk while building the IT infrastructure needed to thrive in today's business climate.

Succeeding in business on a smarter planet, where the world is more instrumented, intelligent, and interconnected, demands that organizations implement an optimized, flexible and dynamic infrastructure. Currently, the vast majority of the world's IT infrastructure remains slow, inefficient and incapable of handling increased workloads. According to IBM's recently released Global CIO Study 2009, approximately one in two Midmarket CIOs report that they are unable to effectively handle a 200 percent processing load increase or 50 percent decrease.

The study, representing the insights and vision of more than 2,500 CIOs worldwide, including 158 CIOs in 31 countries employed at midsize organizations, also revealed that changing business models are one of the top challenges midmarket CIOs face today and that virtualization and risk management are among their top three technology priorities.

"Our research shows that more than half of CIOs at midsize organizations are actively engaged in setting strategy and enabling flexibility and change," said Marc Dupaquier, IBM general manager of the global mid market. "Implementing a dynamic infrastructure is a key enabler of that flexibility. IBM's newest midmarket offerings for dynamic infrastructure position organizations to do more with less, manage and mitigate risk, and take advantage of flexible delivery choices like cloud computing."

All of the new offerings listed below are part of IBM's Midmarket portfolio. That means IBM has certified that the offering is easy for midsize companies to install and maintain, has trained IBM sellers and Business Partners and has priced the offering so that companies with between 100 and 1,000 employees will see a rapid return on their investment."IBM continues to enrich its portfolio of midmarket offering to help us address the unique needs of today's midmarket customer," said Lief Morin, president of IBM Business Partner Key Information Systems, "Partnering with IBM is all about creating value for our clients whether they define their requirements as short-term productivity gains or long-term transformation projects."

These new offerings include IBM Rational AppScan OnDemand, Tivoli Foundations Application Manager, Tivoli Foundations Service Manager, IBM Software Services-Enhanced Technical Support Gateway, and IBM System Storage DS3950 Express.

Cost-effective protection for critical Web-based business assets

According to the X-Force 2009 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report, more than half of all vulnerabilities disclosed so far in 2009 have been Web-application based. IBM's Rational AppScan OnDemand helps customers reduce the risks and costs of conducting business online and is available with flexible pricing options for midsized businesses. AppScan OnDemand is a software as a service (SaaS) solution that identifies and prioritizes Web application security and compliance risks. By delivering AppScan OnDemand through a SaaS model, midmarket organizations can improve the security and compliance of Web applications, including those hosted in a cloud environment. AppScan OnDemand requires no training or in house security expertise, set-up, or software maintenance expense. It provides the flexibility to have Web sites scanned remotely on a regular basis by IBM's security and compliance product experts, while maintaining full use of AppScan hosted in a secure environment, for a specified number of users. AppScan OnDemand also allows for quicker detection of security vulnerabilities, as well as increased support for audits mandated by industry regulations, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

"Despite these challenging economic times, spending in the security industry continues to increase. This is especially true for midsize organizations, which are being exposed to an alarming number of security and compliance risks every day," said Scott Holden, account executive, cognence, an IBM business partner. "With IBM Rational AppScan OnDemand, our customers will now have access to a wide variety of security experts and protection that they never would have been able to implement in house."New service management offerings designed and priced for the midmarket

Another key part of IBM's new midmarket offerings for dynamic infrastructure are IBM Tivoli Foundations Application Manager and IBM Tivoli Foundations Service Manager.

Tivoli Foundations Application Manager quickly and comprehensively monitors, alerts and reports on the performance and availability of an organization's IT infrastructure. This appliance improves application availability, which provides improved ROI. IBM Tivoli Foundations Service Manager saves money by reducing service desk support and application upgrade costs. This appliance-based solution improves efficiency by streamlining service requests, incident and problem management, and delivering an automated help-desk solution.

Today's portfolio of midmarket offerings for dynamic infrastructure also includes the following IBM services, storage and server solutions:

  --  To ensure that midsize organizations can minimize costly downtime, IBM
      is launching the IBM Software Support Services - Enhanced Technical
      Support - Gateway service.  ETS Gateway is an affordable proactive
      service that helps companies maximize IT infrastructure availability
      on IBM Power System, System i, System p and related operating
      systems through access to information regarding maintenance, security,
      and performance. Designed for midsize companies that have limited
      budget for IT maintenance and limited in-house technical resources,
      the new service delivers immediate ROI through reduced downtime and
      avoidance of critical problems. Available immediately in Europe,
      Middle East, Africa and Latin America, IBM Software Support Services -
      Enhanced Technical Support - Gateway will not be available in Japan
      until January 2010 and in the US and Canada until March 2010.
  --  The new IBM System Storage DS3950 Express is a next-generation
      mid-tier disk system with industry-leading 8 Gbps FC interface
      designed for data-intensive applications that demand increased
      connectivity. Ideal for organizations that want to reduce their
      storage total cost of acquisition or improve performance in mixed
      workload environments, the DS3950 Express will be available globally
      beginning December 4 except in the US, Canada, and China.
  --  The IBM System Storage N3300 Express / N3600 Express also have been
      enhanced, offering companies greater space and power efficiency at a
      50 percent lower total cost of ownership. The System Storage N3300 and
      N3600 Express solutions support dynamic infrastructure through
      increased performance and capacity at an affordable price.
  --  IBM System x3200 M3 Express and IBM System x3250 M3 Express have been
      enhanced to meet the needs of midsize businesses in an affordable,
      easy-to-manage package. The x3200 M3 Express is ideal for
      organizations seeking ways to thrive in increasingly dynamic IT
      environments without compromising on cost, space or energy consumption
      considerations. For businesses seeking an economical price point,
      small form factor, and efficient server to support specialized
      applications, branch office general-purpose applications, and OEM
      appliance solutions, the x3250 M3 Express is a single-socket server
      that offers new levels of performance and flexibility. Both servers
      become generally available worldwide on October 30.

  About IBM

  Learn more about new midsized business solutions from IBM.Join infoBOOM today and learn how to solve the challenging issues confronting your business. Midsize businesses now have access to IBM and third party subject matter experts on infoBOOM, an online IT community that is run jointly by IBM and CIO.com. infoBOOMhttp://www.theinfoboom.com/ is a place to discuss industry trends, gain insights that can help companies improve the way they do business, find relevant and timely information to solve business problems, and address the unique challenges facing midsize companies. Join the infoBOOM community on CIO.com at www.theinfoboom.com, through Facebook, or LinkedIn.