As businesses take on the challenge to deliver greater capability with smaller budgets, they have to become smarter in how they approach every aspect of their IT. Especially in dealing with the sometimes hidden cost of service of the IT. IBM BladeCenter Service Advisor is a proactive way to manage and reduce these costs.

IBM BladeCenter Service Advisor comes standard in all BladeCenter chassis that have the Advanced Management Module. Once activated, it’s like having a 24/7 IT staff onsite at your office or datacenter. If there is a service event on the BladeCenter chassis, Service Advisor has the power to inform you, as well as IBM Service & Support, or your designated service provider. This proactive approach to service can help you eliminate expense, so you can focus on what is important; running your business.

The unique 2+2 pricing program available on the LS42 and System x3755 lets you start in case of the LS42 with a 30mm, single-wide, 2-processor blade server. When workloads demand more performance, this blade server is ready to scale to four processors with the addition of a multi-processor expansion unit (MPE). Simply snap the MPE onto the original blade and it becomes a 4-processor, 60mm blade server with the additional performance you need.

This is click and scale from two to four processors, pay as you grow without upfront cost.

Ask your local IBM representative for details on this pricing program

Source: Announcement LS42 and x3755, Product details LS42, Product details x3755

VMware Management and Automation products offer enhanced virtual machine management capabilities, helping lower total cost of ownership. The Management and Automation products include Lifecycle Manager, Lab Manager, Stage Manager, and Site Recovery Manager.

Source:  Announcement Letter VMware Management and Automation

Now these products can also be purchased through regular IBM System x channels and are part of the SSCT:

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IBM has made available to us an IBM Systems Director 6.1 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document which answers questions like:

• How does IBM Systems Director 6.1 compare to HP Insight Manager? 
• What is the cost of IBM Systems Director 6.1?
• How does IBM Systems Director 6.1 interact with Tivoli?
• Does IBM Systems Director 6.1 work with PowerVM™?
  
• etc etc

AEM is an energy management software tool that can help provide a single view of the actual power usage across systems in your infrastructure as opposed to the benchmarked power consumption. Planned availability date is december 12th 2008.

The new features in this release are: Web-based user interface requiring only a browser, Soft power capping, Energy thresholding, Group capping, Integration with Emerson-Liebert's SiteScan management application (the SiteScan application is supported by Emerson Network Power), Additional power savings modes, Command-line interface support, Select non-IBM PDU support

AEM V4.1 is available as a Web download and includes AEM's monitoring and management functions. AEM's monitoring functions are available for no charge, and the AEM management functions are enabled for a 60-day evaluation period.

You can use the IBM® Advanced Settings Utility (ASU) to modify firmware settings from the command line on multiple operating-system platforms like DOS, Linux, Solaris, Windows (yes also WinPE).

It supports BIOS code, Remote Supervisor Adapter firmware, Remote Supervisor Adapter II firmware and Baseboard management controller firmware 

You can perform the following tasks by using the utility:

• Modify the basic input/output system (BIOS) CMOS settings without the need to restart the system to access F1 settings
• Issue selected baseboard management controller setup commands
• Issue selected Remote Supervisor Adapter and Remote Supervisor Adapter II setup commands

The ASU supports scripting environments through its batch-processing mode.

Readme:  ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/systems/support/system_x_pdf/46m1352.pdf
Files:  http://www-304.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-55021&brandind=5000008

IBM® BladeCenter® provides a modular approach to streamlining your system to maximize server capability. Take advantage of the IBM Blade Assessment Tool and see if blades or rack servers are right for you.

What is the Blade Assessment?
The Blade Assessment Tool is designed to help you determine whether blade or rack servers can help meet your organization's requirement. The assessment uses your responses to determine whether your organization has a requirment for rack or blade servers. When you have completed the online assessment, a graphic is generated on-screen. A graphic of the result will also be emailed to you if you request it.

Source:  Blade Assessment Tool

ARMONK, NY and SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- October 23, 2008 -- IBM and Intel Corporation today announced they are extending their collaboration in the blade server market to drive adoption of an open industry specification for blade switches. This will enable switch vendors to maximize return on their research and development by developing products to a single design, reaching more customers with just one product.