Unisys Launches Data Center Virtualization and Orchestration Solutions to Power Real-Time Infrastructure

Business Wire, Jan 22, 2007

New Solutions Optimize the Cost and Operational Benefits IT Delivers in Dynamically Supporting Business Processes

BLUE BELL, Pa. -- Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS) today announced two new solutions for enterprise computing that enable clients to align business and IT more closely and reduce IT management costs. These solutions are a significant component in the Unisys vision for a Real-Time Infrastructure - a complete business life-cycle management capability that enables the monitoring and management of IT activities, in real-time, based on business requirements.

The new Unisys Enterprise Virtualization and Enterprise Orchestration solutions create a flexible, Real-Time Infrastructure that enables enterprises to manage increasingly complex IT environments more efficiently, enhancing the quality of services provided and driving down operational costs. The new solutions feature business-driven resource automation capabilities, infrastructure discovery and implementation tools, and resource utilization software for enhanced cost allocation.

"Today, more than ever, IT departments are under pressure to contribute directly to the bottom line - and Unisys Enterprise Virtualization and Enterprise Orchestration solutions help them do that," said Alan Bender, vice president, Real-Time Infrastructure Solutions, Systems & Technology, Unisys. "Combined with Unisys services capabilities, our real-time solutions can enable enterprises to create the optimal business-driven IT environment, based on a combination of virtual and physical resources automatically provisioned and deployed through an intelligent infrastructure."

In a mature Real-Time Infrastructure (RTI), strategic objectives and business key performance indicators (KPI) drive the dynamic allocation of IT resources, allowing enterprises to achieve the highest utilization of their computing assets. The Unisys RTI strategy takes a staged approach toward that goal, driving toward incremental and non-disruptive progress for today's IT organizations.

Enterprise Virtualization: Revolutionizing the Economics of Real-Time Infrastructure

Virtualization is a key technology driver for Unisys RTI solutions. The Unisys Enterprise Virtualization solution leverages Unisys advanced technologies to enhance industry-standard virtualization offerings, such as VMware.

The Unisys solution delivers knowledge-based virtualization of existing IT infrastructures and rules-driven resource management for an optimized transformation in line with key business objectives. In addition, Unisys high-socket-count scale-up enterprise servers provide exceptional utilization and management capabilities to reduce the cost of both the transformation and ongoing operations.

The Unisys Enterprise Virtualization solution allows clients to quickly and securely implement a virtualized infrastructure and minimize server sprawl by taking advantage of optimization for the Unisys ES7000/one Enterprise Server. The process is driven using Unisys IT Modeler, a Web-based application implementing the Unisys 3D Visible Enterprise (3D-VE) approach. Unisys IT Modeler enables enterprises to discover, categorize and store infrastructure assets and link them with related business assets.

Two new technologies give the Unisys Enterprise Virtualization solution a distinct advantage. Unisys Real-Time Consolidation Accelerator provides secure, anywhere-to-anywhere automated conversions of applications and operating systems between physical servers, virtual machines, and image archives. Unisys Real-Time Chargeback provides visibility and insight into the IT costs associated with business processes across heterogeneous environments, both virtualized and non-virtualized.

The Enterprise Virtualization solution delivers key benefits, including rapid discovery of critical infrastructure components, identification of optimal virtualization candidates based on utilization data, automated physical-to-virtual implementation on Unisys ES7000/one Enterprise Servers using VMware Infrastructure 3.0 Virtualization Server, and ongoing capture of resource utilization metrics to create visibility into IT usage and costs.

Enterprise Orchestration: Getting the Most from Infrastructure Diversity

The Unisys Enterprise Orchestration solution helps businesses achieve maximum service level performance and infrastructure efficiency - even in the most complex IT environments.

The core of the solution is new Unisys Orchestration and Provisioning technology - a rules-based software engine which allows organizations to set their own policies for resource use and performance, and which then automatically allocates resources based on the terms of the policies. This "hands-off" dynamic system optimization lowers capital expenditures and operating costs and helps enterprises meet or exceed service-level requirements.

"Enterprise Orchestration is about IT being agile enough to stay aligned with dynamic corporate objectives, and efficient enough to maintain service levels while keeping costs low," said Bender.