Abstract: Techniques, an apparatus and an article of manufacture for targeted maintenance of computing devices in a system. A method includes assessing a maintenance request to determine a class of computing devices to which the request applies, selecting a propagation mechanism applicable to the class of computing devices, generating an agent based on the propagation mechanism to carry out the maintenance request on the class of computing devices, deploying the agent on at least one computing device in the class of computing devices, and propagating the agent to additional devices in the class of computing devices.

Abstract: Automating network reconfiguration such as firewall reconfiguration in migrations may include determining network reconfiguration needs in one or more network functionalities of the target environment based on the discovering; and applying the network reconfiguration needs to the one or more network functionalities in the target environment.

Abstract: Techniques, systems, and articles of manufacture for automatically propagating updates in a data center. A method includes dividing multiple virtual machines in a data center into one or more equivalence classes, wherein each equivalence class is based on a signature corresponding to an offline, online and/or manual update, automatically creating an offline and/or online virtual machine manifest for a first virtual machine of the multiple virtual machines based on one or more file system changes during the offline, online and/or manual update for the first virtual machine, wherein said manifest is applicable to each additional virtual machine in the same equivalence class as the first virtual machine, and applying the offline and/or online virtual machine manifest for the first virtual machine to the remaining multiple virtual machines in the same equivalence class to automatically update the remaining multiple virtual machines in the same equivalence class.

Abstract: A foreign instance is transferred from a customer environment to a target infrastructure-as-a-service cloud environment as an image. The foreign instance is adjusted to standards of the infrastructure-as-a-service cloud environment to obtain an adjusted instance. The adjusted instance is registered into a management system of the infrastructure-as-a-service cloud environment.

Abstract: An arbitrary customer instance is transferred from a customer environment to a target managed-infrastructure-as-a-service cloud environment as a transferred image. An image adjustment plan, capturing at least one adjustment required to render the transferred image compliant with standards of the target managed-infrastructure-as-a-service cloud environment, is formulated. The image adjustment plan is executed to adjust the transferred image to obtain an adjusted image compliant with standards of the target managed-infrastructure-as-a-service cloud environment. The adjusted image is on-boarded into the managed-infrastructure-as-a-service cloud environment as a standard image thereof.

Abstract: During a process of migrating a source system into a standardized virtual environment, virtual machine instances of the source system executing in a hypervisor are snapshotted as virtual machine images in an operational repository of the hypervisor. The virtual machine images in the operational repository are short-term snapshots. From time to time during the migration process, long-term snapshots of the source system are created by checking given ones of the virtual machine images from the hypervisor operational repository into an image library as image objects.

Abstract: Techniques, an apparatus and an article of manufacture for targeted maintenance of computing devices in a system. A method includes assessing a maintenance request to determine a class of computing devices to which the request applies, selecting a propagation mechanism applicable to the class of computing devices, generating an agent based on the propagation mechanism to carry out the maintenance request on the class of computing devices, deploying the agent on at least one computing device in the class of computing devices, and propagating the agent to additional devices in the class of computing devices.

Abstract: A services computing system may include a server and a plurality of clients in communication with the server. The system may further include a plurality of service exchange units in communication with the server with each of the plurality of service exchange units providing a service to a portion of the plurality of clients based upon permissions and data received from the portion of the plurality of clients. A system contemplated herein helps to better manage complex business ecosystems with heterogeneous and/or homogenous groups of clients.

Abstract: Data characterizing a source computing environment having at least one hardware resource and at least one workload is obtained, as is a specification of a target computing environment to which the at least one workload is to be migrated in a migration. Based on the data characterizing the source computing environment and the specification of the target computing environment, the migration is categorized into one of a plurality of categories; and the migration is specified in accordance with a migration technique selected based on the categorizing step. Techniques to identify suitable migration candidates are also provided.

Abstract: A method (and system) of monitoring business performance using a monitoring artifact includes processing an incoming event using the monitoring artifact.

Abstract: Automating network reconfiguration such as firewall reconfiguration in migrations may include determining network reconfiguration needs in one or more network functionalities of the target environment based on the discovering; and applying the network reconfiguration needs to the one or more network functionalities in the target environment.

Abstract: Method, server, and computer product are provided to implement change management across domains. Memory is included for storing a program. A processor is functionally coupled to the memory and is responsive to computer-executable instructions contained in the program. The processor is operative to announce planned changes for a configuration item to interested outside domains, and the configuration item is in an inside domain. Open subscription is provided to the interested outside domains such that the interested outside domains can subscribe to the subscription as participants. A change instance is created or the configuration item in the inside domain. Change progress of the change instance is reported for the configuration item to the participants of the interested outside domains. State progress notifications are distributed to the participants of the change. The change instance is executed to make planned changes to the configuration item.

Abstract: The present invention describes a method and system for preparing a migration and consolidation of at least one source application to be migrated to or consolidated in at least one heterogeneous server device. A computing system selects at least one prospective target platform component based on an evaluation of at least one source platform component, a requirement of the at least one source application, and a compatibility and an affinity of the at least one prospective target platform component. The computing system collects first metadata of the at least one source platform component and the at least one prospective target platform component. The computing system collects second metadata associated with the migration and consolidation. The computing system groups the first metadata and the second metadata into a RFM (Request For Migration). The computing system prepares and configures a final target platform in accordance with the RFM.

Abstract: Non-functional concerns are addressed within an abstract model corresponding to a real-world system. One or more annotations profiles are constructed. Each annotations profile describes one or more annotations, where each annotation corresponds to and represents one of the non-functional concerns. Each of a number of modeling elements of the abstract model is associated with an annotation corresponding to a non-functional concern pertaining to the modeling element. One or more transformation templates are constructed. Each transformation template transforms the abstract model to a specific implementation platform to which the transformation template corresponds. For each transformation template, the abstract model as has been transformed to the specification implementation platform to which the transformation template corresponds is executed. Such execution results in consumption of the non-functional concerns represented by the annotations associated with the modeling elements.

Abstract: Method, server, and computer product are provided to implement change management across domains. Memory is included for storing a program. A processor is functionally coupled to the memory and is responsive to computer-executable instructions contained in the program. The processor is operative to announce planned changes for a configuration item to interested outside domains, and the configuration item is in an inside domain. Open subscription is provided to the interested outside domains such that the interested outside domains can subscribe to the subscription as participants. A change instance is created or the configuration item in the inside domain. Change progress of the change instance is reported for the configuration item to the participants of the interested outside domains. State progress notifications are distributed to the participants of the change. The change instance is executed to make planned changes to the configuration item.

Abstract: A method and system for discovering dependencies, configurations and utilizations among IT resources are disclosed. A discovery team writes a prediscovery script without requesting credentials and sends it to a system administrator (SA) who already has necessary credentials to execute the prediscovery script. Then, the SA reviews the prediscovery script and executes the prediscovery script on a target server. While or after executing the prediscovery script, the target server generates a result of an execution of the prediscovery script and provides the result to an analysis system. The analysis system analyzes and parses the result and generates a user-friendly data (e.g., graph or spreadsheet) that represents the result. Then, the analysis system provides the user-friendly data to the discovery team. The analysis system does not require credentials and does not directly communicate with the target server except receiving the result of the executed prediscovery script from the target server.

Abstract: A system and method for determining and managing risk impact of service downtime includes defining a process structure of one or more process types, services the process structure employs and a distribution of the services' time durations. Process usage data is collected for each type of process, and risk is estimated based on penalties and expected deadlines for each process. For a service change and outage of a given length of time, an optimal change window is determined with respect to a minimized impact on the process based on the estimated risk.

Abstract: Non-functional concerns are addressed within an abstract model corresponding to a real-world system. One or more annotations profiles are constructed. Each annotations profile describes one or more annotations, where each annotation corresponds to and represents one of the non-functional concerns. Each of a number of modeling elements of the abstract model is associated with an annotation corresponding to a non-functional concern pertaining to the modeling element. One or more transformation templates are constructed. Each transformation template transforms the abstract model to a specific implementation platform to which the transformation template corresponds. For each transformation template, the abstract model as has been transformed to the specification implementation platform to which the transformation template corresponds is executed. Such execution results in consumption of the non-functional concerns represented by the annotations associated with the modeling elements.

Abstract: Automomic business processes management solutions have capabilities to adapt themselves to changes in the business environment. These autonomic business solutions are built by wiring together autonomic solution components called BPbots (Business Process robots). BPbots are granular solution components representing an aspect of a business process. In general, BPbots consist of two parts, an execution module and a managerial module. The execution module represents the standard, non-autonomic solution component, such as a standard process flow model describing the long-running flow or business adapter describing the communication of the solution with service providers (such as applications). The managerial module is responsible for the autonomic behavior of the BPbot. The managerial component has the ability to monitor the execution module, analyze the performance, plan new, more appropriate execution patterns and change the behavior of the execution module according to the new plan.

Abstract: A method (and system) of monitoring business performance using a monitoring artifact includes processing an incoming event using the monitoring artifact