BMC Launches Cloud Management Platform

BMC Software, the mainframe and systems management firm, recently announced it will extend its systems management capabilities to external resources -- read "cloud" operations.

BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management includes a policy-driven service catalog, which makes services available to a cloud infrastructure user based on his role; a self-service Web portal for requesting cloud resources, such as virtual machines and disk, from the service catalog.

It also includes dynamic provisioning of a services stack, which includes server, network and storage allotments and applications, a combination that can built by Cloud Lifecycle Management across heterogeneous infrastructures. The cloud suite also includes cloud management workflows that consist of the automatic assignment of compliance policies and performance monitoring tools to help insure cloud services perform as expected.

The new product includes IT service management for greater automation in IT operations. The service management follows the recommendations of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), an internationally recognized set of best practices, for process interaction and compliance. The set of cloud management services was announced May 25.

An early adopter is Fujitsu, a new entrant as a supplier of cloud infrastructure from its Sunnyvale, Calif., data center. "It is important for Fujitsu to provide high-value and trusted integrated computer technology systems to customers," and its use of the BMC cloud management suite will help it do so, said Akira Yamanaka, senior VP and president of the Software Business Group, Fujitsu Ltd.

BMC said May 16 that it was not only entering the cloud systems management market but had already passed the $100 million mark in deals in which virtual machine management and both virtual and physical system management combined were the key element in the customer's purchase decision. It termed such sales "cloud foundation" deals. "Unlike other software companies who see cloud computing as a future 'revenue catalyst,' we are seeing the dramatic acceleration of an already successful business driver," said Kia Behnia, BMC's CTO.

Behnia said BMC's existing partnerships with Cisco Systems, supplier of Unified Computing Systems blades designed for heavy virtualization use, Fujitsu, and Blackbaud, a supplier of software-as-a-service to non-profits, gave it a base from which to build additional management products.