Integration as path to more IT management choices and agility

Many customers use Managed Objects technology, at least initially to consolidate IT management consoles. This is understandable since a key point of differentiation for us is our bi-directional API-level integration adapters, which simply means other management tools view our BSM product as if it were just another user. While the consolidation existing IT management tools is a powerful value proposition for many of IT organizations, one bank that I’ve previously written about in an earlier post, found new benefits of integration in adding best-in-class management tools. 

The bank had already standardized on Managed Objects enterprise wide as its presentation layer and had elected to migrate the underlying system management tools, for its Windows environment, from IBM Tivoli to the Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM). The decision was based on cost reduction (equivalent of 3 FTE) and from a technical standpoint the IT operations felt SCOM was a better fit for their specific environment. 

The migration would include nearly 5,000 IT components including 1,200 servers running Windows, Linux and UNIX – in addition to iSeries LPARs managed by Bytware and several thousand network components managed by CiscoWorks and WhatsUp Gold. Normally a large project like this involving the implementation of a new product and data migration would be accompanied by the usual challenges of user adoption – and its associated learning curve. However, since IT operations maintained Managed Objects as the single enterprise management interface and its integration to underlying management systems is both thorough and easy to implement, the transition was smooth, uneventful, and transparent to majority of IT staff. 

While integration was still a central value proposition for this customer, the motivation behind it was new: integration afforded IT operations the flexibility to select the best technology for their environment. Technical SMEs could select tools that best solve their problems while avoiding the risk, disruptions and the usual adversity to change in any organization. It’s a variation of the Post-It note example above, where customer ingenuity led to alternative use Managed Objects. 

- Abbas