Systems Management: The Key to Profitability

One of the hidden expenses of enterprise IT today is all the costs associated with managing various products and technologies. Every time a solution provider in the channel embraces a new product or technology, they generally have to invest in training a specialist to master the intricacies of the management tool that generally comes with the product.

But as systems management continues to evolve an opportunity to break that cycle of dependency is starting to emerge. Within the enterprise, for example, we’re starting to see a convergence of management tools that reflects the convergence of technologies that is taking place in the data center. That means that instead of having to have dedicated networking, server and storage specialists, solution providers can start thinking in terms of having IT generalists that have access to tools that can manage all those IT infrastructure components at a higher level of abstraction.

Similarly, we’re starting to see the same phenomenon take place in the cloud with the emergence of IT management frameworks from companies such as ScaleXtreme that are made available as a software-as-a-service application.

What all this means for solution providers is that as the amount of IT management convergence increases alongside continuing advances in IT automation, the cost of delivering and managing IT services should substantially drop in the years ahead. Given the fact that the cost of labor is still the most expensive element of the IT service equation, these advances represent a significant opportunity to either boost the bottom line or expand the reach of the overall business without having to invest in additional IT headcount.

We live in a time of great systems management innovation that has yet to be fully appreciated. It’s also clear that the solution providers that figure this out first are going to enjoy a substantial competitive advantage. So like the saying goes, now is the time to do unto others before they do unto you.