IBM officials said companies around the world are grappling with the rising challenges of exponentially larger data volumes, server sprawl, increasingly complex infrastructures and flat budgets. Smarter Computing, the core of the IBM Smarter Planet effort, brings companies increased intelligence and lower costs through the use of optimized systems and analytics managed with cloud technologies. As a result, companies can start reducing their data center footprints and management costs, increasing system performance and overall efficiencies, and freeing up more of their IT budgets to invest in innovation, IBM said.