Ability to Address Time-to-Value Determines Status in CIO Consideration...

NAPLES, Fla. Jan. 14, 2009 ASG Software Solutions, the originator of ASG s Business Service Portfolio BSP , and a worldwide leader in business solutions for global enterprises, today outlined a series of industry and market initiatives which will impact the way companies evaluate the business effectiveness of their IT organisations in 2009. ASG believes these trends and technologies will increasingly position business service management s BSM end-to-end performance and availability as the centrepiece of organisational execution and occupy the mindshare of senior executives addressing significant business challenges.

Unlike other IT initiatives slated for elimination this year, spending in systems management and data centres is expected to increase in 2009. BSM strategies, built on a foundation of federated configuration management databases CMDBs that provide comprehensive business information supporting corporate goals, will remain top-of-mind for IT executives looking to drive down costs and leverage resources through asset consolidation and modernisation. However, because of the historical difficulties and limited benefits of monolithic CMDB implementations, this year, organisations will opt for a strategy that enables a phased path to IT optimisation and BSM, based on results.

Whether it s compliance or the demands that new technologies place on the IT infrastructure, companies will continue to be challenged as they aim to optimise their IT and business assets, said Brent Brightwell, Senior Vice President of ASG Marketing and Product Management. This year, vendors will be expected to lead their customers in providing end-to-end solutions in the key areas of systems management performance management, metadata management, infrastructure and operations management, service support, information management, and applications management.

As organisations seek solutions, they will need to know how their preferred technology vendors fulfil key criteria:

CMDB federation to drive efficiency throughout IT and the business: One of the recent tenets of CMDB adoption is the ability to federate or share information between CMDBs and other management data repositories MDRs , rather than merely integrating separate information sources. This enables organisations to access information from complex, multi-vendor IT infrastructures at a lower TCO. While many vendors tout the need for federation, their ability to currently provide offerings that adhere to these standards often fall short.

Increasing role of CMDB in ITIL : More companies will actively pursue programs to implement Information Technology Infrastructure Library ITIL v3 best practices to more widely adopt a business service management approach for IT. ITIL v3 places increased emphasis on the configuration management system CMS , which federates data from multiple CMDBs, tools, and other trusted data sources to enable cross-organisation collaboration for continual business improvement.

Virtualisation help or hindrance: Among its many benefits, virtualisation helps companies continue to deliver services without the cost of adding physical assets. However, it superimposes an additional layer of complexity on an already-complicated infrastructure. Analysing and managing infrastructure capacity, risk governance, software license compliance, and service continuity demands a broad vision encompassing both virtual and physical assets from multiple vendors.

Accessibility versus security: The advanced implementation of cloud computing and network accessible devices will increasingly expose system security. Network support and management for mobile or distributed applications will face tougher demands as usage increases and more users have access to the network. Some states are already implementing regulations calling for tighter security standards on personal information that organisations send into clouds.

Adherence to specific compliance regulations: Facilitating compliance to established best practices like ITIL and COBIT or rules including Sarbanes-Oxley Act SOX in the US, or Combined Code in the UK, and the Data Protection Act, as well as regulations put in place by the Financial Services Authority FSA , require almost all companies to have some form of information management within their infrastructure. Organisations will need to balance these requirements with the intended use of their systems while adhering to new rules and regulations.

Organisations that successfully navigate through this rough economy have to master a complex web of compliance and business issues, Brightwell added. Those who embark on this rough path without an effective business service management strategy do so at their own risk.