Net/Systems Management /
When it comes to understanding buyer preferences for management software solutions, Enterprise Management Associates' research is less than encouraging.
Many of the people we interview confess lack of awareness - especially across the broader market. In one recent study, the lack of awareness was as high as 75% in many management software categories. When respondents indicate their product preferences, we get a seemingly random mix of point solutions, frameworks, appropriate tool sets and products that are simply the wrong fit for the category. The obvious implication is that once someone likes a product, framework, point solution, or suite, they will try to put it into as many sectors as possible, even if it doesn't apply.
From the perspective of vendors selling into this chaos, the news isn't good (unless their products aren't competitive, and they really do want to hide). From the perspective of IT buyers trying to build solutions and integrate management software tools with services, the implications are not good, either. Providers of managed services too often invite abdication ("I give up - you tell me") rather than intelligent partnership. In other cases, picking service providers merely seems to cloud the picture with more choices.
In one study, confusion in the marketplace showed up as the largest gating factor for going forward with an outsourced service (more than twice as much as security, the second gating factor).
The management service provider (MSP) phenomenon - in which management software becomes a "rented" option, as with application service providers (ASP) - provides another positive alternative for management strategies. But MSPs also wrinkle the brow of the consumer with more choices. Are MSPs really ASPs, for outsourcing a business application like Server Advertisement Protocol or Microsoft Exchange, or a form of outsourced services for management? (Some MSPs do combine software and services.) Taxonomically, they look like ASPs, but from a strategic buying perspective they have everything to do with outsourcing strategies for management. MSPs also directly touch upon the wider market of management tool sets with its overarching confusion. While they are new and valuable alternatives for solving management problems, MSPs provide no unique relief from the market confusion bogeyman.
I wish I had a simple answer for all this. EMA is working on sector overviews that should be helpful, but what's really needed is something like, say, A Pocket Guide to Management Software and Services - a handy paperback that gives a quick overview with realistic dimensions that get beyond market penetration. The full encyclopedia would invariably follow.
In the meantime, I can only argue against defaulting to the specter of confusion in the marketplace, perhaps by escalating management software's importance. Sorting through management software options on a broad scale really does warrant your attention, and is worthy of your time. It is not something with a pure end game, and those who have been exposed to industry paranoia will quickly recognize that from an absolute perspective, there is no fully trusted source. But if you can point to anything (inside or outside of high tech) where absolute evidence applies, let me know.
To close on an encouraging note: This is a changed marketplace, with better, more automated solutions, and the real promise of self-adaptive software is beginning to become more than a pipe dream. Old thoughts and skepticisms need to be reexamined by IT organizations and service providers alike, or else the best solutions will get lost. Advanced management software solutions - whether for event correlation, performance trending and reporting, service-level conformance reporting, or software distribution - really do help build teamwork across providers and users, and promote realistic awareness rather than unrealistic abdication.
Management confusion
 
|
|||
 | |||
|
Sign up to receive this and other networking newsletters in your inbox.
