IBM has introduced what it calls the industry's first dashboard for major virtualization platforms, a thing called Systems Director, an extension to IBM Director. Users are supposed to be able to discover, monitor and manage physical and virtual resources from a common portal across both IBM and non-IBM hardware and software.

Initially it supports VMware, Microsoft Virtual Server, System p virtualization and Xen. VMware's VirtualCenter can be integrated into System Director, it says.

IBM says the cost of managing the infrastructure is now the largest and fastest-growing part of the overall IT spend, faster than the cost of new hardware.

Virtualization helps to a point, but adds complexity. Systems Director, which works in conjunction with Tivoli, is supposed to simplify the environment by reducing the number of tools it takes to manage it. Tivoli apparently gives it its cross-platform cachet.

It's web-based, graphical, understands the relationships between virtual and physical servers, and moves workloads and resources around as needed. IBM says it's been spending millions of dollars on virtualization management and Systems Director is the output of development teams in the US, Israel and Mexico.

Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe in Germany is reportedly using Systems Director to run a heterogeneous grid of some 2,000 computers that includes IBM BladeCenter, Xen and VMware.

The widgetry is free for the download for IBM System x, p and BladeCenter machines.