IBM in midsize biz blitz

This one's for the not-so-little guy

IBM has trotted out a small stable of new midsize business products aimed at security, compliance, maintenance, and support for IT in organizations with between 100 and 1,000 employees. Big Blue also launched a new mid-tier disk system along with the bunch.

The new offerings cover a broad spectrum of IBM midsize market merchandise. They include: IBM Rational AppScan OnDemand, Tivoli Foundations Application Manager, IBM Tivoli Foundations Service Manager, and System Storage DS3950 Express.

IBM's Rational AppScan OnDemand is a new software-as-a-service branch of its AppScan software line that tests for web application vulnerabilities like cross-site scripting and buffer overflow. IBM said AppScan OnDemand can sniff out embedded malware in web properties to shield from malicious attacks as well.

IBM reckons AppScan OnDemand gives midsize businesses access to security and compliance with industry standards that wouldn't be as easy to implement or maintain by themselves, and doesn't have the major up-front cost of software.

Tivoli Foundations Application Manager is an appliance that monitors the performance and availability of networks, servers, databases, and email applications.

IBM's pitch is that midsize businesses can track and manage several aspects of IT with a single box rather than in person or with multiple respective appliances. It runs on the IBM Lotus Foundations Server, and it's priced between $18,000 and $19,000. Big Blue says the appliance additionally integrates nicely with Tivoli Foundations Services Manager, which brings us to...

Tivoli Foundations Services Manager is another new appliance that performs service support operations through ITIL V3.0 aligned service requests. IBM says the appliances works as a single point of contact to automate service requests, incident reports, and the like through pre-defined processes.

The appliance features a dashboard with real-time performance views as well as workflows, templates, and key performance indicators (KPIs) targeted for SMP clients. The appliance starts at $12,000.

The IBM System Storage DS3950 is a mid-tier disk system with 8Gbps Fiber Channel interface. Big Blue says its designed specifically to handle data-intensive applications and mixed workload environments. The system will be available globally beginning December 4, with the large exceptions of US, Canada, and China. ®