A study by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) finds that IT management teams are struggling to keep up with the operational complexities caused by large-scale roll-outs of virtualization, SOA and Web 2.0 solutions. The report shows it is “virtually impossible” to effectively manage virtualized data centers without help from automated management tools.

Based on a survey of 602 global IT decision-makers, ESG’s research proves that effective IT service delivery in today’s dynamic data center environments requires increased implementation of cross-platform, workflow automation solutions; IT service management best practices such as ITIL; and state-of-the-art IT asset management and root cause analysis tools.

Among the report’s key findings:

• 76% of respondents expect virtualization to extensively or moderately impact their IT management requirements over the next 24 months. Web 2.0 and SOA-based composite applications are having a similar impact.
• Just 22% of IT organizations would consider their approach to IT management to be “highly effective” -- defined as being able to quickly and cost-effectively respond to changing business needs without disruption to IT services.
• More than one-third (36%) of organizations with highly effective IT organizations deploy extensive IT management workflow automation across multiple technology layers (i.e., servers, storage, applications, etc.). In comparison, just 6% of less effective IT organizations are currently using this level of IT management automation.

“Effective IT management in today’s complex data centers requires timely, accurate views of how servers, storage, networks, software and end-user systems are interacting,” explains the study’s primary author, Mary Johnston Turner, senior market research analyst. “In addition, IT managers need to quickly identify the root cause of problems and coordinate responses across multiple technology layers in order to stay in compliance with service level agreements. Our research shows that it is virtually impossible to accomplish these objectives without help from IT management automation.

“ESG’s new research clearly shows that the most effective IT organizations are also those using the most sophisticated management tools and processes,” continues Ms. Turner. “ESG also found that IT service management best practices, such as ITIL -- as well as automated IT asset management tools and automated event monitoring, correlation and root cause analysis tools -- contribute to highly effective IT environments.”

Despite the value provided by more sophisticated IT management tools and best practices, ESG discovered many organizations still do not fully exploit them. Most frequently, this is due to lack of time, money or internal IT staff skills. “We think many IT managers are missing out on major opportunities to reduce costs, rein in complexity and improve services levels,” states Ms. Turner.

About this study

Complete findings are available in ESG’s report, "2008 IT Service & Infrastructure Management Survey: Uncovering the Business Value of IT Management Automation and Best Practices." The goal of the study was to assess the types of business and IT operational impacts that occur when IT organizations deploy these tools and best practices in production environments. The 44-page report includes over 40 charts and tables.

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