In a world where IT complexity continues to rise and
budgets remain depressingly static, many organisations are seeking
ways to maximise investment in their IT
infrastructure.
As a result, increasing numbers of enterprises are turning to
systems management software to ensure they get the best out of
the technology that they have in place.
According to Ruggero Contu, a principal research analyst at
Gartner, the global market for such offerings was worth £5.6bn in
2006, and is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 8.7%
over the next five years, valuing it at £8.5bn by 2011.
These relatively high growth rates are borne out by a survey
that was published by Datamonitor in June this year, in which the
analyst firm questioned IT decision makers from 500 companies of
varying sizes located in Western Europe, the US and Australia.
The study indicated that although nearly 80% of those questioned
currently have some form of systems management software in their
organisation, adoption levels for different products within the
sector vary widely, creating scope for further investment.
For example, although certain areas such as network and database
management are fairly mature in adoption terms, others areas such
as asset or datacentre management are not.
But one of the reasons that adoption is currently so piecemeal
is that going down the systems management route at an
enterprise-wide level is not necessarily a cheap option, and can be
difficult to justify.
Therefore, although most large multinational companies have
already introduced an integrated software suite from one of the top
four players -
IBM/Tivoli,
Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard and BMC - uptake elsewhere
tends to be more fragmented.
And this situation is set to continue. The Datamonitor study
suggests that as a result, over the next six months, organisations
- particularly SMEs, which have so far been reluctant to spend
money in this area - will invest most heavily in database
management technology.
Network management
Network management, meanwhile, will be the most popular target
over the medium term of up to 24 months, particularly in industries
such as insurance, energy and utilities, education and
healthcare.
But outsourcing is also likely to increase, particularly in the
energy, utilities and retail banking sectors, although according to
Aphrodite Brinsmead, an analyst at Datamonitor, it is still not
considered a mainstream option, and will "remain the preference of
a small minority".
Although currently about 20% of organisations opt for an
outsourced approach, the figure may rise to as much as 30% over the
next two years, says Brinsmead, not least because systems
management software is widely viewed as difficult to deploy.
Roy Illsley, a senior research analyst at Butler Group,
summarises the situation thus: "Further down the stack from the
large corporates, a lot of organisations still do not have any
systems management software at all and get by with tools provided
by their hardware supplier.
"Or if they have got it, they tend to have tools to manage this
and that, and they are not integrated. So although you find odd
examples of organisations using integrated suites, they are in the
minority."
Nonetheless, says Contu, there is a gradual tendency by
companies of all sizes towards introducing suites rather than
implementing best-of-breed systems, as they attempt to reduce the
number of suppliers and products they have to manage.
But the biggest inhibitor to adopting this approach for SMEs is
cost, which can include not only pricey upfront licence fees, but
the time and resources required for planning, implementation and
training.
According to Paul Farmer, head of IT at
Arsenal Football Club, this means that unless organisations
have a fairly large network, it can be difficult to make a business
case to introduce such software.
"In the past, our infrastructure was not big enough to warrant
systems management as much, so when we were still at our Highbury
stadium it was not something we could justify.
"But anything more than 30 to 40 servers and it becomes harder
and harder to do things manually and to pre-empt any issues. It is
a risk management thing," he says.
The club, which employs about 400 staff, moved to its new
Emirates Stadium in the summer of 2006 and increased the number of
its servers from under 20 to 60, in order to run a suite of new
hospitality and entertainment systems that control everything from
the site's 100 turnstiles to its 500 tills and 300 TV systems.
At the same time, the club also introduced Computer Associates'
Unicenter network and systems management software to enable it to
become more proactive in tackling availability issues.
"It is noticeable since we moved that the amount of server
uptime has gone up markedly to almost 100%. There have been a
number of instances where we have been able to pre-empt problems
and avoid possible downtime, which translates directly into money
terms," says Farmer.
Finding the right system
Although he says that Unicenter is not the cheapest product on
the market, Farmer emphasises that it is important for
organisations to look at the price tag in relation to what they are
trying to achieve and the savings they can make by boosting the
availability of their systems.
"If downtime is not an issue, there is no point, but if it is,
systems management is definitely something you need to look at,"
Farmer says.
One of the advantages of going for an integrated systems
management suite is that it acts as "a manager of managers" says
Farmer. This means that Simple Network Management Protocol-based
(SNMP) products such as
Extreme Network's Epicenter network management software, simply
plug into the offering and work right away. However, with non-SNMP
applications, it is necessary to manually import log and text
files, which takes more time and effort.
But the big four suppliers are not the only companies offering
systems management software, although they are keen to make inroads
into the SME space using the third-party channel. IBM, for example,
is coming out with a specifically cut-down version of its product
in the shape of Tivoli Express.
Beyond the big four suppliers
Of the wide range of alternative suppliers that currently target
the mid-market there is
Symantec and its Altiris acquisition, Avocent's Landesk,
Novell, and Microsoft for Windows environments only.
Budget Insurance Services, on the other hand, decided to invest
in a system from Halcyon Software to support business growth by
ensuring that its core IBM iSeries (formerly known as AS/400s) and
Intel-based servers, which run its call centre and online systems,
remained constantly available.
The organisation, which operates across multiple sites,
including South Africa, had formerly used its own bespoke software
to manage the systems. But about two years ago it got to the point
where not only was maintaining it a full-time job, but the
application was no longer functional and proactive enough for its
needs.
This meant that many of its 154-strong IT team had to work in
shifts all through the night to ensure that there was no downtime,
which was leading to fairly high staff turnover.
Benefits of systems software
But according to Steve Whitelam, associate director for
infrastructure at Budget, the implementation of systems management
software has "reduced the need for skilled staff to do more mundane
tasks as the software alerts us to any problems".
He adds, "The alternative was to have people wait for things to
go wrong, but this lets the team focus on more value-add activities
rather than just the day-in, day-out stuff."
Like Arsenal, Budget also sees a direct correlation between
server reliability and sales, not least because the company's IT
budget is based on the availability of its systems. As a result,
says Whitelam, the software has paid for itself tenfold.
"If we lose systems even for an hour, it costs the company a lot
of money in lost revenues, so each minute of downtime is
quantifiable because of lost referrals or quotes. But the software
ensures that our systems are available for the maximum time and if
there is an issue, we have intelligence on what went wrong and
why," he says.
Nonetheless, for those companies deploying such software for the
first time, he advises against adopting a big bang approach.
Budget introduced its system bit-by-bit and migrated its
applications over one-by-one because "if something does not work,
it can have catastrophic results".
"It was about fear of the unknown. We were going from believing
we were in complete control, to letting software manage our systems
and, at the time, it was a scary thought," says Whitelam.
Illsley confirms that this building up and expanding out of
systems over time to tackle individual pain points is the most
common approach to deploying such applications. But he warns that
prior to implementation it is crucial to map out a systems
management strategy to obtain real benefits, rather than simply
introduce products on an ad hoc basis.
"It is fine just to whack in some technology, but implementing
tools like this effectively is a long journey, so it is crucial
that organisations understand what they want to achieve and the
benefits they want to obtain.
"You have to devise a strategy, understand how it links to the
organisation's governance and service management model and also how
you want the system to manage your underlying IT resources," says
Illsley.
Another issue to consider when purchasing software of this ilk
is that the market is a consolidating one and has been for the past
couple of years. This means that potential users need to be wary in
relation to their purchasing decisions.
This is not least because the big four suppliers are currently
in acquisitive mode as they jostle for market dominance and attempt
to fill gaps in their products lines.
But the sector is also characterised by a raft of new entrants
such as Opsware and Bladelogic with their server provisioning
software, which can make procurement confusing unless users are
clear as to their requirements.
Nonetheless, systems management software is widely considered as
progressively crucial to ensure the smooth running not only of IT
infrastructure, but also of the business.
As Contu says, "Quality of service has become an increasingly
important issue in Europe over the past few years, but it is not
just about availability and resilience these days.
"It is about bringing IT in line with critical business
requirements and ensuring that it will support business needs."