numbers of remote locations or devices. In the early years of TMF's lifecycle it was a pre-requisite to several other key Tivoli components. With IBM's adoption and promotion of other non-TMF based products, such as Micromuse Netcool Omnibus in February 2006 and the increasing general acceptance of Secure Shell in preference to CORBA meant TMF entered the latter stages of product lifecycle. The final independent release version of TMF was 4.1.1 with release 4.3.1 supplied with and to Tivoli Configuration Manager 4.3.1 in 2008. Tivoli Service Request Manager Tivoli Service Request Manager manages configuration items (CI) and critical assets. It was previously known as Maximo Service Desk. Netcool/OMNIbus IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus operations management software consolidates complex IT and network operation management tasks as the primary event management platform within the suite. References See also List of mergers and acquisitions by IBM IBM acquisitions Systems management American companies established in 1989 Software companies established in 1989 1989 establishments in Texas Software companies based in Texas Companies based in Austin, Texas 1996 mergers and acquisitions Defunct software companies of the United States