Credit Suisse, the big broker and investment banker, has launched an independent company called DynamicOps LLC, quietly formed in January, to market a virtual machine management application called Virtual Resource Manager (VRM).

It is funded by Credit Suisse’s NEXT II venture group. Exactly how much is unclear.

Credit Suisse says it first deployed a virtual infrastructure in 2005, and realized that while virtualization improved resource utilization and business agility, it also increased operational complexity.

The VRM product, which works with Citrix, Microsoft, Sun containers and VMware, was initially developed by Credit Suisse’s Global Research and Development Group. It has reportedly been in production for more than two years and manages thousands of virtual desktops and servers at multiple Credit Suisse datacenters in four locations worldwide.

Credit Suisse claims the software offers a level of product maturity and capability not found in many virtual infrastructure management products.

Its job is to provide out-of-the-box policies, workflows and provisioning templates that companies can customize. It self-service portal and automated workflow is supposed to accelerate service delivery times. Virtual resources are tracked and reported on during the complete lifecycle to allow more efficient maintenance and chargeback.

VRM’s workflow engine is based on the Windows Workflow Foundation, part of .NET 3.0, and its data store is supposed to capture a full audit trail of all events executed in VRM workflow. Its web console and command line interface are beholden to .NET 3.0 Web Services.

According to Stephen Hilton, managing director of enterprise servers and storage at Credit Suisse, “In the case where self-provisioning for virtualized servers has been deployed, VRM enabled us to reduce our provisioning lead times from weeks to minutes. This has resulted in more efficient server utilization and lower capital costs. An additional benefit is the dramatic improvement in our ability to respond rapidly to business needs.”

The bank’s managing director of end-user platforms Brad Novak says, “VRM has made desktop virtualization a ‘win-win’ for Credit Suisse. We are able to improve the user experience through rapid service delivery, while maximizing the operational ROI through automation and standardization.”

DynamicOps is led by Rich Krueger, previously an executive vice-president at Incipient, a storage virtualization company. Krueger’s credits include LightSpeed Software (acquired by Astoria), EMC, and Conley Corporation (acquired by EMC).

DynamicOps is supposed to let Credit Suisse realize a return on its software investment, as well as fund a software organization that can help meet its current and future technology needs, according to Credit Suisse CIO Karl Lande