SYOSSET, N.Y., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Organizations are scrambling to drive costs out of their IT infrastructure, while making it more flexible. They're looking for ways to avoid upgrades, and to use what they already have to meet new and demanding information processing requirements. In addition, enterprises are working to optimize their IT infrastructure to enable new business initiatives. A new video-based program from IBM and WatchIT -- a leader in on-demand education -- presents successful techniques for achieving these sometimes conflicting goals.

In this program, Understanding the Basics of the IBM Virtualization Engine Platform, Nancy Roath, Vice President of IBM Systems and Technology Group, leads a team of experts in explaining how a virtualized IT environment can provide the benefits of flexible information access, simplified resource management, cost savings, and improved quality of service.

"It's not rocket science that the number-one goal of most companies is to grow revenue," says Roath. "But in today's business environment, there is one important caveat: grow revenue on last year's budget. And delivering more and more service, while wringing out expenses, on the same or even declining budgets, can be a huge challenge."

Roath notes that IT capabilities have increased dramatically over the last decade, creating, in many cases, a complex infrastructure that is difficult -- and costly -- to monitor, maintain, and upgrade.

The goal of this program is to demystify virtualization and demonstrate its practical advantages in simplifying the infrastructure.

After Roath introduces the concept of virtualization, Annette Miller, Cross Brand Marketing Team Member, discusses how virtualization applies to servers and storage. Miller explains how virtualization evolves in a consistent pattern of four distinct stages, shares customer experiences involving implementation, and describes the IBM Virtualization Engine Platform.

Next, Juhi Jotwani, Director, BladeCenter and xSeries Solutions, and Dai Vu, Program Director, Worldwide pSeries Product Marketing, explain the practical implications of virtualization in a cross-platform environment. Barbara Korte, Sales Executive, Global Virtualization Solutions, concludes the program by describing how organizations can begin implementing virtualization.

In a case study driving home the real-world benefits of virtualization, Roath describes how First National Bank of Omaha was able to achieve an 18-to- 1 server consolidation ratio, resulting in substantial cost savings and more flexible computing power for its business growth initiatives.

To watch this program, visit http://www.systemsinstitute.org/flashProgramPage/?c_acronym=IVIR& registered=yes

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CONTACT: Robert Rauch of WatchIT, +1-516-393-5761, or
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Web site: http://www.watchit.com/