Suite aims to manage datacentre complexity

BladeLogic Release 7 provides a central view of all configuration changes in complex IT environments

Datacentre and configuration control software specialist BladeLogic will today (18 September) launch an updated version of its datacentre automation suite to give IT staff a better view of the application and server environment and the activities of their colleagues.

BladeLogic Release 7 has a new synchronous management architecture, which provides firms with a single point from which to view all configuration management activities undertaken by different IT teams, the company said.

Vick Vaishnavi, director of marketing at BladeLogic, said that the growing complexity of datacentres means there are often many teams of administrators – including systems administrators, application developers, database administrators and security engineers – working on different aspects of the datacentre environment.

Vaishnavi added that this may make configuration management difficult as work by one team could affect tasks undertaken by another. He said the new release would tackle the problem by ensuring “people aren’t treading on each others’ toes”. “[This new suite] aligns people, tasks, and the target apps they are working on, under a single policy environment, so a change made anywhere in the datacentre is synchronised everywhere,” Vaishnavi said.

The release also features a new standalone Application Manager model to automate application release processes; an upgraded version of BladeLogic’s Operations Manager suite, featuring enhanced datacentre auditing capabilities and access controls; and new out-of-the-box best-practice policies that can be pre-installed on software.