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Contents 
Introduction
Benefits and implications
The push to centralise
Australian ITIL
AAD sheds light on frozen assets
Executive summary |
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What used to be largely a conglomeration of desktops, servers and routers is now complemented by complex storage area networks; firewalls and other security tools; wireless and wired telecommunications services; application components linked using Web services interfaces; data and voice switches; and a myriad of other elements.
Just as every part plays a role in the functioning of the machine, each of these IT components plays a discrete, but important, role in the overall IT environment. Enterprise asset management systems must recognise both the importance of managing individual IT components and be able to step back and track the assets as broader functional ones.
Tools to provide this broad view are rapidly evolving as ITAM vendors rejig their tools. Microsoft, for one, will next year amalgamate its desktop and server-focused Systems Management Server (SMS) and network and service-focused Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) into a combined system called Systems Manager 2005. A key focus of that platform will be on building in the intelligence to recognise -- and correct -- poor performance, without any user intervention, according to defined business policies.
"Systems are getting a lot smarter," says Michael Leworthy, Windows server product manager with Microsoft Australia. "The base platform is becoming a lot more intelligent around management, and self-awareness, and we've got much more in-depth management tools. Users previously had to design the operational functions for themselves, but we're trying to create more architecturally aware servers so the applications are aware of customers' data centres."
With a broad stable of discrete management applications, IBM is taking a similarly consolidated view of enterprise assets. The company's Software Group is currently building links between its Tivoli enterprise management environment and WebSphere application environment to facilitate correlation between equipment and network performance and logical service availability. The push will also link up with IBM's Rational portfolio of software development and component management tools, supporting the relatively new idea that software components have become as important to manage as physical IT assets.
Whereas Microsoft will actually combine its applications, IBM's integration will be virtual, with the individual products retaining their identity but integration providing smooth data exchange and cross-application policy enforcement. An additional application, currently called DB2 Information Integrator but currently in R&D, will create what regional middleware manager Mitchell Young terms a "relationship registry" that maps relationships between various data sources.
"As we move to this composite application environment, and as we move to business processes that span enormous levels of complexity, we need to really manage configurations in a holistic approach," Young explains. "We're not just managing the hardware and software resources, but might be managing resources that might be non-IT -- plant equipment, people, and application logic. Rather than combining [asset] databases into one, we have a federated data model that can look across them in the context of the business services you're supporting."
Conventional fixed asset management firms are also moving into the IT space, recognising customers' growing need for better accounting visibility of IT assets. Well-established models for areas such as contract management will only complement more conventional configuration and change management capabilities.
MRO Software, whose MAXIMO fixed asset management solution has enjoyed strong penetration within conventional maintenance environments, is among the vendors making the switch. MRO already offers ITAM capabilities through its MAXIMO MainControl add-on, gleanead from its 2002 acquisition of MainControl, and will incorporate those features into the heart of the next version of MAXIMO.
Adrian Hocking, regional sales director for MRO, believes the assed management giant has a lot to offer the IT world.
"The sophistication that's been developed in physical and production management -- the philosophies and business processes designed to ensure you don't stop production -- are starting to get applied to IT," Hocking says. He points out that the concepts are the same regardless of whether you're looking after PCs or SCADA equipment. "It's just that recent developments have enabled more automated management."
