Grocer consolidates IT management tools

Computerworld - Albertsons Inc. today announced that it's close to finishing a rollout of Marimba Inc.'s desktop and server management software throughout the 2,300 food and drug retail stores it operates in 31 states.
Albertsons began deploying the software in March for tracking IT assets and making automated software changes to tens of thousands of devices, including servers, desktop and laptop PCs, and point-of-sale terminals, said Kia Behnia, chief technology officer at Mountain View, Calif.-based Marimba.
Jeff Tibbitts, an IT project manager at Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons, said the rollout is scheduled to be done by mid-September. "Getting a handle on our hardware and software is important," Tibbitts said. "We had a variety of automated tools and manual processes in the past, so this is an effort to consolidate all of that."
He added that Albertsons, which had revenue of $35.6 billion in the fiscal year that ended Jan. 30, will also use Marimba's software to automate the deployment and management of antivirus software and security patches.
Fred Broussard, an analyst at IDC in Framingham, Mass., said Marimba has struggled in the management software market against vendors like IBM's Tivoli Software unit and Computer Associates International Inc. "Marimba is in a race with the big guys, and this is a market where it is increasingly hard [to compete]," he said.
But retailers make up a large part of Marimba's user base, and Tibbitts said Albertsons chose that vendor over Tivoli, CA and other rivals because its software can scale across the grocer's operations and is flexible enough to track various hardware platforms and up to 350 applications.
Albertsons also expects to get a return on its investment through improved efficiencies within 11 months of completing the Marimba installation, Tibbitts said. He wouldn't disclose the cost of the project.