Users find dual roles for management tools

When it comes to management software, there's something to be said for double dipping.

Take Aram Eblighantian's experience consulting for mailing giant Pitney Bowes.

He bought the BigFix Enterprise Suite last year to help his client get its patching processes under control. Never did he anticipate that he'd be using the same package to standardize client and server configurations across the company's network.

"I would have definitely considered buying another product, especially to collect and standardize configurations," he says. "Because [the BigFix suite] is agent-based, it can return a fair amount of information on the clients and systems in the organization, down to the hardware properties, the locations of the machines and who logs on to them. From there it segues into asset management, then change management and so on."

While budgets have loosened some in the past year, many IT shops remain in "get more for less" mode. This is encouraging companies to look closer at software that can be used not only for management, but also security, compliance and other jobs. Industry watchers say that vendors are even getting into the act.

"Every vendor is worried about keeping their customers and keeping them happy," says Jasmine Noel, a principal analyst at Ptak, Noel & Associates. "They will work to uncover hidden capabilities to ensure their product does not become shelfware."

Companies such as Altiris, Peregrine Systems and BMC Software have started pitching compliance with their desktop and systems management wares. Security information vendors such as ArcSight, Network Intelligence and OpenService are packaging their security event filtering products to also alert IT managers of compliance rules.

The key issue for customers is whether they risk stretching a product too far, says Stephen Elliot, a senior analyst at IDC. "IT managers need to determine if, say, a network management tool that can collect log data will give them the visibility they need into the security logs on network devices."

Before they start shopping for compliance tools, IT shops also might look closely at their current management tools to determine whether these products might help meet regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. AMR Research recently forecast that U.S. companies will spend about $15.5 billion on compliance-related activities this year.

"There are tools that have strong workflow processes that can be used to address compliance," says Audrey Rasmussen, a vice president with research firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). "Some products are being sold as 'process out of the box' to simply document processes. Service management products can do that now, and the majority of vendors would support configuring their software to meet compliance goals."

Jason Kennedy, senior analyst and system engineer at Tsunami Communications in Vancouver, Canada, says syslog collection tools, such as HP Network Node Manager, also could be put to work on compliance projects.