IBM"s Tivoli division on Monday launched an initiative that will help corporate IT shops translate processes into more manageable pieces or services, and then automate the integration of them.

IBM delivered its first set of software and services that constitute what one company official called the "IT Service Management initiative," to help users automate and standardize the way they design and integrate processes ranging from releasing security patches to changing or adding servers located anywhere across an enterprise.

The goal of the initiative is to do away with the task of manually designing IT processes individually within their respective silos and then have to hand-code integrations across various departments, company officials claimed. With the new products and services, administrators can create a process once and then automate the integration of it across any specified operation.

"We have been very focused for many years on bringing automation and process integration to the business world. But the next step we are taking now is bringing that same level of process automation to IT," said Bob Madey, vice president of strategy at IBM"s Tivoli division.

IBM unwrapped several new products as part of the initiative, including the Tivoli CCMDB (Change and Configuration Management Database), which is a "virtualized" database that federates IT information spread across multiple databases. It gives users a single view of an application running on what could be dozens of servers helping administrators make better decisions such as administering passwords so the appropriate workers have access to the right systems. This is particularly relevant to those users dealing with a number of compliance and governance issues.

Madey said the CCMDB may be the most critical piece of the launch for users to understand, although it may be the hardest piece to grasp.

"Usually the job of the CCMDB is to collect configuration items and attributes of all the resources and apps within an IT environment and then correlate them so sense can be made of how they relate to each other. But this will allow you to manage the configurations of them down at the data level of integration, something that has been sorely needed for quite some time," Madey said.

Analysts see the initiative as an important one for IBM, one that some believe the company is late in getting off the ground.

"I think IBM and its users would admit they have been behind on managing stacks of components that will help deliver end-to-end IT services. But in classic IBM form once they decide to address it they have done so in a deep, comprehensive way. In a year or two we"ll look at all the top-tier players and they will all be in the thick of trying to transform IT around services," said Mary Johnston-Turner, a vice president at Summit Strategies.

Johnston-Turner said the notion of IT service management is well-established with several IBM competitors, most notably Hewlett-Packard. These competitors have been building support for it into their product road maps for some time now. Because the idea is one Tivoli users have been waiting for, Johnston-Turner thinks they should accept the products and overall strategy after some initial tire-kicking.

Other products and services as part of the strategy include the IBM Tivoli Unified Process, IBM"s first navigational tool that provides the "how-to" for customizing and implementing best practices for mapping, modifying, and improving IT processes, and the IBM Tivoli Process Managers, prepackaged software that serves to automate IT processes such as coordinating application deployment across software, hardware, storage, and network technologies.

IBM also announced a series of customized services from its Global Services division around the IT service management offerings. The company"s asset-based hybrid software-services delivery model will help quicken the development and deployment of software and services to solve specific business problems. The service combines software code, intellectual property, and best practices that have been collected by Global Services through their work with customers throughout the years.