IBM boosts Toronto software lab, acquires Think Dynamics

IBM Corp will add 100 new employees to its Toronto Software Laboratory as part of a new global mandate aimed at offering customers on-demand computing capacity and services via the Internet. The May 14 announcement coincides with IBM’s acquisition of Think Dynamics Inc, a Toronto-based developer of data-management software. Financial details were not disclosed. Think Dynamics’ 35 employees will join the Toronto IBM lab, which is the largest software development facility in Canada and the third largest in the IBM Software Group, employing 2,500 software developers, engineers and support staff. At the heart of IBM’s on-demand e-business strategy is an automated technology called orchestrated provisioning, which uses the Internet to provide real-time feedback on the state of a company’s IT environment, increase capacity and make instant changes to servers, middleware, applications, storage systems and network interfaces. Called Tivoli, the software also supports multiple platforms including Linux, Unix or Windows. Think Dynamics’ software is designed to help customers respond more quickly to demand peaks and potential system failures by allocating computing resources as needed.