Emerson Network Power (NYSE: EMR) announced that it will combine the capabilities of its Trellis platform with IBM's IT service management (ITSM) software in a move to significantly optimize the management of data center resources. The integrated data center infrastructure management (DCIM) platform will deliver increased energy and operational efficiency and improved IT service delivery, say the companies.
Integrating IBM's software with Emerson’s Trellis platform is also expected to provide real-time visibility of IT applications, infrastructure components, and the power grid, enabling holistic management of the data center ecosystem. The companies say that this information can be used to improve energy efficiency and space and capacity utilization, enable rapid problem management and resource provisioning, and improve operational efficiency, all of which may reduce the risk of downtime and enhance the delivery of IT services.
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Industry analyst firm IDC, which has been studying the DCIM market since its inception, believes the Emerson-IBM software integration can deliver customer benefits. “The combination of Emerson’s real-time infrastructure optimization capabilities in the Trellis platform and IBM’s suite of enterprise system management capabilities has the potential to help IT and facilities teams deploy a comprehensive data center infrastructure management solution to increase energy and operational efficiency,” comments Jennifer Koppy, research manager at IDC.
The combined capabilities of Emerson’s Trellis platform and IBM software will also enable data center managers to understand the true costs of running an application with metrics such as watts per workload, while calculating its resource demands in real-time, and dynamically provision physical and logical resources to support the application efficiently and cost-effectively.
“Managing the physical constraints of available space and power in the data center is becoming a greater challenge for organizations. This, combined with the increasing demand on the enterprise for reliable and agile IT services, makes finding a cost-effective solution critical for our customers,” says Jamie Thomas, vice president, Tivoli strategy and development, IBM. “The combination of Emerson Network Power’s market-leading DCIM solution -- the Trellis platform -- along with our solutions for IT service management and systems management, is an ideal way to meet these customer needs with innovative capabilities.”
Steve Hassell, president of Emerson Network Power’s Avocent business, adds, “Aligning our DCIM capabilities with IBM’s software capabilities enables data center managers and IT and facilities leaders to see, decide, and act across all resources. This collaboration with IBM is a strong validation of our DCIM strategy and the ability of the Trellis platform to improve how data centers are currently managed and operated. Our collaboration will span engineering, development, and go-to-market strategies, and we are making significant investments to realize the full potential of our work together.”
As part of the collaboration, IBM will resell the Emerson Trellis platform as its DCIM solution. Details of the Trellis platform integration roadmap with IBM Tivoli software will be available in March at the IBM PULSE 2013 conference. To register for the event, visit: www.ibm.com/pulse. To learn more about Emerson Network Power’s Trellis platform, including the general availability of Trellis 2.0, visit www.EmersonNetworkPower.com/Trellis.
See also: Emerson unveils data center energy consumption e-book, calculator
