The Four Hundred

IBM is opening up its drive toward self-healing, autonomous computing by including software vendors such as Lakeview Technology, SafeStone Technologies, and Tango/04 in Project eLiza. Earlier this month, IBM announced the first eight software vendors to participate in its new program, which seeks to publicize the fact that there are already several solutions in the market that can help users reduce the complexity of managing heterogeneous operating environments.

IBM announced Project eLiza one year ago, with the lofty goal of creating servers and networks of servers that can manage themselves and self-correct when things go wrong. While the concept of publicizing the benefits of self-managing servers manifested itself at Big Blue with the Project eLiza announcement, IBM has been delivering eLiza-like technology across its eServer line, particularly with technology that originated in the AS/400 and iSeries and its venerable mainframes, for many years. Moreover, other server vendors--such as the Tandem and HP 9000 units of Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, NEC, and Hitachi--have been delivering similar self-healing and self-administering technologies to market for some time, too.

Up to this point, eLiza has been an IBM-only initiative with no visible business partner component. Now, as the first eLiza-inspired technologies are getting ready to go out the door with new servers and new releases of operating systems--such as Enterprise Identity Mapping, which will make its debut with the release of OS/400 V5R2 later this year--IBM is opening up Project eLiza to third-party software vendors in order to further the cause of self-managing servers.

IBM's eServer customers are struggling to counter the rise of technological complexity against a management and skills shortage, said Tom Monza, an IBM technical strategist working on eLiza and the related grid computing initiative. "We're not telling customers to think about it. They already have the problem," he said. He said IBM brought business partners into the eLiza initiative to let customers know that "we have technology available in the marketplace today, and to make customers aware that they are available."

In addition to Lakeview, SafeStone, and Tango/04, which provide high-availability, security, and systems-management utilities for OS/400, IBM tapped five other software vendors that provide systems management and capacity planning solutions for IBM platforms. One participant in the Project eLiza partner program, Peakstone, sells an application called eAssurance that uses statistical pattern recognition techniques to model the performance characteristics of e-business Web sites in order to provide the fastest response times.

Another company, called System Management ARTS, or SMARTS, develops a systems management program called InCharge that monitors a range of data center objects, such as servers, routers, applications, databases, and cables, and determines what symptoms they'll produce when they start to break down. Wily Technology develops a product called Introscope, which monitors Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) applications and can bring additional server or application capacity online as performance thresholds are exceeded. Think Dynamics' ThinkControl also provides self-configuration and self-optimization capabilities for applications and addresses companies' high-availability, capacity-on-demand, and server-consolidation needs. Lastly, Moonlight Systems' Moonlight3 systems management provides predictive problem determination for Unix and Windows data centers.

To qualify for the eLiza partner program, software vendors must meet three criteria, Monza said. First, the vendors must have a product that provides self-optimizing, self-healing, or self-protecting capabilities. Second, the product must be policy driven, meaning that users must be able to interact with the program using abstract concepts, not by working with technology, which would just add another layer of complexity. Last, the product must work with more than one operating system.

It's all about shielding technological complexities from the user, said Raul Cristian Aguirre, chief executive of Tango/04, whose flagship product, VISUAL Message Center, provides systems and application management capabilities for OS/400 and Windows environments. "VISUAL Message Center extends the scope of IBM's Project eLiza by masking technical complexities from operators and providing adaptive, dynamic management of IBM eServers," he said. "Our unique business-views allow systems to manage themselves according to business policies rather than technical parameters."

Vendors accepted into the eLiza partner program benefit by having their utilities listed in a new IBM Tools Network category, Self Managing Systems, that was specifically created for vendors participating in this program. There are no extra dues to join the eLiza partner program, but participating members must already be part of the Tools Network. In this respect, the vendors gain additional visibility for their products and technologies, and a generous reference from Big Blue. But what the eLiza partner program is not is a IBM stamp of approval, Monza said. "We're not certifying them or endorsing them, but they meet the criteria for products in this category," he said.

As the eLiza partner program stands now, the business partners are not officially contributing to the development of new eLiza technologies, which are strictly the domain of IBM researchers and technologists. However, as IBM begins rolling out new eLiza technologies later this year, business partners could begin playing a larger role in the actual development of these next-generation e-business technologies.

Software vendors interested in joining IBM’s Self Managing Systems partner program for Project eLiza can find more information and enrollment forms at the eLiza Web site.