Deploying data center services is a costly and time-consuming effort. And, when the project is completed, most companies find that their data center services aren't scalable and require expensive support activities to keep them operating smoothly.

Recently, IBM (News - Alert) has worked toward a solution to the data center services issue, according to this Post Bulletin report. The idea is to simplify and streamline data center services technology. The software being developed will be sold in bundles that include hardware. The software is designed to automate intelligently, which will help reduce the amount of time that processes usually take.

IBM calls the integrated system PureSystems, and spent about $2 billion in developing the product. But IBM isn't the only tech company moving to make data center services more scalable and easier to operate; Dell, Oracle (News - Alert), Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, and EMC have also made strides to find a similar solution. There has been some movement on the hardware-side of these companies to band together to offer packaged solutions.

The hardware alone does not represent a well-rounded data center services solution, however. Oracle has projects called Exadata and Exalytics, which use the company's software and hardware packaged together to execute processes such as analyzing data and running database queries.

IBM's data center services solution is giving clients a wider breadth of options in software to run a variety of applications, including operating system environments. But the company is using multiple vendors to make the platform work.

The company’s hardware includes the machinery to operate the networking side, processing, storage, and an important systems management software package that helps automate the system. This system is considered the foundation to the company's solution to data center services issues that the industry is encountering today.

The systems management software will not only automate the installation and the updating processes; it will also monitor the hardware and the operating system, as well as the virtualization programs, applications, databases, and middleware.

The obvious perk to this new approach is a more scalable and easier-to-deploy system, but there are also cost savings captured on the bottom line. IBM's solution starts at around $160,000, but the time it takes to deploy and the automation features help to reduce the support costs that are inherent with data center services.

The data center services solution won't be available until June, but industry insiders believe this could be a solution that will help turn the tide and help bring simplification to the data center services industry processes.