IBM Metering Software to Help Customers and IT Outsourcing Providers Track and Bill for Computing Usage

IBM Metering Software to Help Customers and IT Outsourcing Providers Track and Bill for Computing Usage

IBM today announced new software that assists customers in virtualizing their entire technology infrastructure by tracking the use of computing assets across different types of systems. The software also supplies companies and IT outsourcing providers with a simple method to bill internal departments or individual clients for the amount of computing they actually consume.

IBM’s new Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager — incorporating technology from IBM’s January acquisition of CIMS Lab — takes its cue from how utility companies meter and bill for electric, gas, oil and water consumption in homes and commercial buildings. The software provides a Web-based interface that meters and bills technology use, allowing customers to measure their virtual server, storage, network, software, middleware and e-mail “consumption” by company, department or even individual. It then allows for billing of that use to either outsourcing clients or to individual departments inside a company.

“A key inhibitor to widespread adoption of virtualization is the ability to track usage and accurately allocate costs of a shared infrastructure to internal departments, or in the case of IT outsourcing providers, to charge their clients for the amount of technology they are consuming,” said Rich Lechner, vice president, Virtualization, IBM. “This software solves that problem and allows clients to make smarter spending choices in the future based on usage patterns.”

The Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager is designed to simplify how IT outsourcing companies track virtualized data centers used in outsourcing engagements, and accurately bill each of their clients. The software allows for virtualization of shared servers, and it eliminates the need for outsourcing companies to provide separate servers to each customer to help meet service level agreements.

Read the complete Press Release