Getting the IT house in order

Dennis Drogseth's newsletter earlier this week discussed the turmoil in the stock market and the impact it might have on IT. Today, I'd like to throw my two cents in as well.

Yes, some companies will cease to exist as the market takes its toll on companies that didn't build their businesses on sound, business models. But on the other hand, most businesses today are highly dependent on technology, and technology is here to stay. It appears that panic is setting in, as some companies are hunkering down and reducing their IT budgets.

While it is prudent to carefully watch your IT budgets, slashing across the board is not the thing to do. Instead, companies should be selectively spending on technologies that will improve the company's productivity in targeted areas, in anticipation of future needs.

One of those areas is in IT management. Companies have been deploying new e-business and enterprise applications, sometimes at such a feverish pace that it was done at the expense of putting in all of the proper infrastructure. According to an Enterprise Management Associates study on business-to-business e-commerce, many companies had not yet fully implemented security components in their e-business infrastructure. It's these kinds of shortcuts that should now be tended to. It's time for companies to invest in management software that will position them well for the interim, as well as for the long term when the economy picks up again.

This is the perfect time for IT organizations to get their houses in order, especially if the pace of deploying new initiatives or applications is being slowed due to budget cutbacks. It would be a mistake for companies to also cut back on expenditures for the management of the infrastructure. Not only do efficient management tools or services help to cut personnel costs, but they may also cut infrastructure costs because the tool can better manage and maximize the resources (people and assets) that an enterprise already has in place. These tools include server load balancers, policy-based management tools, event correlation, software management tools, asset management tools, security management tools, and the list goes on.

Reporting tools are another area that can help IT personnel do their jobs more efficiently. If the tools provide useful and intelligently delivered information, rather than mountains of data, IT staffs will be more productive with less.

Alternatively, if your budgets are cut too far, there are also some freeware tools available. As I found during the informal survey of favorite management tools several weeks ago, many of you were very interested in finding out about where to find some of the free tools, such as Cricket, that our readers suggested. I suspect that if cutbacks go too deep or too long, that more of you may turn to open-source alternatives, such as Linux and its accompanying freeware. A weak economy may actually help industry acceptance of open-source software.

Another trend that may be helped by a weaker economy is the use of service providers. In many cases, the costs are lower than deploying technologies internally, and the costs are spread out evenly over time.

It's not in a company's best interest to stop its investment in management tools and services, in an effort to cut costs. If you cut too deeply in you investment in management tools today, it may haunt you later when your infrastructure can't stand up to the future business requirements of your company.

Dennis Drogseth is a director with Enterprise Management Associates, a leading analyst and market research firm based in Boulder, Colorado, focusing exclusively on all aspects of enterprise management. Dennis has extensive experience in network management platforms and products and is researching trends in management software and changing IT roles internationally. His 18-plus years of experience in high-tech includes positions at IBM and Cabletron. He has been quoted in the press and is a speaker at industry events. He can be reached via e-mail.

Audrey Rasmussen is a research director with Enterprise Management Associates in Boulder, Colorado, a leading analyst and market research firm focusing exclusively on all aspects of enterprise management. Audrey has more than 20 years of experience working with distributed systems, applications and networks. Her current focus at EMA is e-business, SMB/SME and MSPs. She can be reached via e-mail.

Enterprise Management Associates in Boulder, Colorado, is a leading analyst and market research firm focusing exclusively on all aspects of enterprise management software and services.

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