At the IBM Pulse 2012 conference, Toshiba announced it is using IBM Tivoli software embedded in its new line of business PC to deliver more secure and energy-efficient computers.
LAS VEGAS IBM and Toshiba announced that Toshibas
new line of enterprise laptop PCs will be integrated with IBM
software, providing energy management and advanced endpoint security
protection.
Toshiba plans to sell the new lines of enterprise
PCs and its integrated solution globally in mid-2012, the company said at the IBM Pulse 2012
conference here.
All of the business PCs we are planning will have
this, said Norimasa Nakamura, senior manager of the Products Management
Division at Toshiba, who spoke at a press conference on the news.
This new partnership is taking a new generation of
PCs and infusing them with endpoint-management capabilities right down to the
BIOS, said Scott Hebner, vice president of marketing for IBMs Tivoli brand.
IBM officials said with the growing use of laptops
by organizations, there are several important factors to consider, including
the emerging 24/7 work environment that requires many users to keep laptops
running around the clocknot always in power-saving modes. Stolen laptops are
also one of the biggest causes of data breaches to organizations in 2011, the
company said. This directly relates to laptops that contain confidential data
requiring higher security measures to protect them if stolen or misplaced.
Multiply these behaviors across all employees in an organization, and the
security risks, energy costs and environmental impacts rise.
To address this, Toshiba and IBM jointly developed a
better way to manage energy use and secure data in laptops. Toshibas new line
of enterprise laptop PCs will combine IBM software based on its Tivoli Endpoint
Manager and Toshibas enhanced BIOS feature to allow IT managers to apply a
companys specific policies for energy controls and security across PCs within
an organization.
With this solution, energy usage data is measured by
the PC hardware, which allows more accurate readings of power consumption. This design allows the IT staff to remotely apply
each group of PCs into specific power-saving modes or make peak-shift
management changes as needed to deliver better energy-efficiency gains.
Nakamura said the new PCs can use up to 47 percent
less energy than other PCs.
To provide better security, the Toshiba laptop PC
with the IBM software provides a patch-management
capability that automatically adapts necessary patches with minimum impact for
network bandwidth and IT staffs workload. A single patch-management server can
support up to 250,000 PCs, shortening patch times and updates without losing PC
functionality, even over low-bandwidth or globally distributed networks.
In
addition, the new PCs equipped with the endpoint-management solution provide
access control to data, which prevents PCs from starting up, being logged on
and being screen-unlocked unless the PCs are authenticated by the management
server. When a PC has no connection to the server, the USB portable memory with
the signature file can be used to authenticate the PC instead of the server.
And IT staff can protect the stored data by preventing a third party from operating
a laptop when it is lost or stolen. In addition, IT staff can define the policy
to prohibit writing to external storage and printing when the PC is not
authenticated against the management server.
IBMs endpoint-management capabilities combined
with Toshibas BIOS and power-saving technologies allow for superior energy and
security controls, Taro Hiyama, chief marketing executive for the Digital Products
& Services Company at Toshiba, said in a statement. Starting with these
controls, Toshibas goal is to continually integrate value-added device-management
functions in its enterprise laptop PCs used in the IBM Tivoli Endpoint Manager
solution. IBM software helps us accomplish this goal.
IBM combines endpoint and security management into a
single solution with the Tivoli Endpoint Manager to allow IT managers to
visualize and manage physical and virtual endpoints. Organizations can better
secure and manage their IT assets and gain visibility, control and automation
into their most time-intensive IT tasks, such as patch management and asset
inventory, IBM said.
As endpoint devices, such as laptops, proliferate
inside and outside an organization, its important that the right security and
management policies are in place, no matter where the device is located, Daniel
Sabbah, general manager of IBM Tivoli Software, said in a statement. IBM
software embedded into Toshiba laptops allows organizations to easily oversee
these devices to help manage energy efficiency and security of the data that
resides on them.
Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.
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