APPLICATIONS

TORONTO -- Responding to the increasing demand for organizations to 'run IT like a business', Platform Computing Inc. today introduced Platform Intelligence, a unique solution that enables IT professionals to understand and proactively manage complex distributed IT computing environments. The first 'IT Analytics' solution of its kind, Platform Intelligence provides visibility into the utilization, performance and value of distributed enterprise-wide IT resources. Armed with this data, organizations can adopt a more flexible IT strategy to ensure consistent service delivery, effective capacity planning, and informed IT investments. Platform Intelligence combines business intelligence technology with a highly scalable adaptive agent framework to provide a solution for rapid decision-making. Going beyond traditional operational and system management tools, Platform Intelligence provides business-specific information that is correlated to expose the interdependent relationship between distributed IT assets and business objectives. The culmination of Platform's ten years of experience collecting, managing and analyzing data across large, distributed computing infrastructures, the key features of this solution include decision ready data marts, powerful visual reporting and real time analysis tools, proactive event response, a customizable management portal, reliable and secure data delivery, and low-impact data collection agents that integrate with existing customer system management frameworks. "Enterprise IT has typically been a poorly understood and underutilized corporate asset," said Nick Gall, senior vice president & director, Server Infrastructure Strategies, Meta Group. "In order to transition IT from a technology supplier to a trusted service provider, IT management needs to measure and demonstrate IT cost effectiveness and efficiency in driving business objectives." Platform Intelligence is already deployed at several global firms in the life sciences, financial services and manufacturing sectors to optimize the performance of their Enterprise Grid infrastructures. At ARM (Advanced RISC Machines), the industry's leading provider of 16/32- bit embedded RISC microprocessor solutions, Platform Intelligence is deployed across five global design centers, integrating existing Sun Solaris systems, newer Linux systems and desktop PCs into an Enterprise Grid to sustain a huge workload without additional IT infrastructure expenditures. This solution will enable ARM to improve time to market for new products, make more informed decisions on the purchase of new software and hardware, measure the return on investment from IT purchases against business objectives, and reduce ongoing expenditure on hardware and software licenses. "In the current economic climate, it is vital for businesses to understand their project costs and to maximize the efficiency of all distributed resources," said Ibrahim Chadirchi senior development manager at ARM. "Platform Intelligence has the potential to give us great insight into what resources our projects use and how efficiently we use those resources." Platform Intelligence is a focused, modular solution that allows IT executives to address multiple business challenges in a holistic manner. Organizations can select from the first of a series of "Insight" modules designed for their unique management requirements: * Infrastructure Insight(TM) -- This base analytics package provides data collection, trend analysis, reporting and visualization on IT infrastructure operation and utilization. * Application Insight(TM) -- Designed for n-tier grid and distributed applications, this module provides in-depth views of performance, system provisioning, continuity and response time. * Workload Insight(TM) -- Designed for product development lines of business, this module ensures that designers, engineers and scientists gain maximum productivity out of their computing infrastructure. * License Insight(TM) -- Designed specifically for the manufacturing industry, this module manages cost and optimal utilization of expensive engineering software licenses.