Look out for next wave of BSM solutions

Running IT like a business is a major priority for IT managers today. And if you are like most organizations, you're evaluating one or more emerging approaches that can help you align business goals with IT infrastructure. These include BSM (business service management), ITSM (IT service management). BTO (business technology optimization) and ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library). 

Vendors, meanwhile, are ramping up with next generation management tools. Computer Associates, BMC/Remedy, and Managed Objects, as well as HP and IBM, and others are jumping onto the idea of business service management underpinned by a centralized configuration management database along with some type of correlation engine. Some are further ahead than others. Managed Objects, for example, announced this week its Business Service Configuration Management (BSCM) solution which integrates IT service topology information--via its new agent-less BTI (Business Technology Insight) tool--with just about any configuration or asset data source. 

As for larger vendors, BMC plans to shift resources to its growing services management business as part of its latest restructuring plan. And CA just picked up Concord hoping that it will fill some gaps in its end-to-end Unicenter IT service management platform.

 A few years ago it seemed as if organizations needed to meet vendors halfway when implementing a BSM solution. A Gartner report published in 2003 said, "Only 10 percent of large enterprises have matured their IT operational processes to the point that they are ready for BSM."  Nowadays, while no piece of cake, solutions like the latest from Managed Objects promise to make it easier and cut implementation time significantly.