IBM (NYSE: IBM) led all vendors worldwide in IT operations management software revenue in 2007, according to a new report from analyst firm Gartner, Inc.

Today at its Pulse 2008 conference, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced new software and services to help businesses thrive in the new era of industrialized IT operations.

HP today announced virtualization and power management technologies that help customers streamline IT operations to realize dramatic cost savings, increased flexibility and improved energy efficiency.

In an effort to help clients benchmark and improve efficiency of their IT operations and reduce their environmental impact, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the industry's first corporate-led initiative to enable clients to earn energy efficiency certificates for reducing the energy needed to run their data centers.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a multi-year agreement valued at $480 million Cdn to manage Scotiabank's (TSX: BNS) (NYSE: BNS) information technology operations, including data centers, branches, automatic banking machines and help desk support.

Allianz of America (AZOA), parent of Fireman's Fund Insurance Company and Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, has signed a $330 million, 7-1/2 year outsourcing agreement with IBM that leverages the combined information technology (IT) infrastructure operations of both companies.

HP today (1st August) announced that Wal-Mart has selected the HP Neoview data warehousing platform to power complex analysis of data collected across its 4,000 U.S. stores.

Symantec today announced that Sun Microsystems will standardize on Symantec's Veritas NetBackup software throughout its enterprise. Sun will use NetBackup to streamline IT operations , increase database and application availability, and improve data protection