What Is Driving the Evolution of Enterprise Technology Management?
The use of more recent multi-cloud models enables cloud computing to be even more of a moving target by autonomously starting and shutting down machines in a continuous cycle without the need for human intervention. The question is, what is driving the shift in corporate technology management?
Traditional enterprise information technology (IT) asset discovery, lifecycle management, and security controls are being challenged by the continued influx of new technology and the accelerating dynamics of mobile, cloud, and hybrid work environments. Arthur Lozinski, co-founder and CEO of Oomnitza, discusses the factors driving the development and evolution in the enterprise technology management space based on the latest research.
Enterprise technology management (ETM) unifies siloed technology information into a consolidated, comprehensive, and actionable inventory, increasing organizational productivity and lowering capital expenditure. It lets organizations gain visibility and control while streamlining IT processes.
Many companies now host their infrastructure and applications not just in data centers but also on the cloud. This might include the management of workloads that are distributed among up to twelve separate cloud instances or more that are running at the same time. More recent multi-cloud models enable cloud computing to be even more of a moving target by autonomously starting and shutting down machines in a continuous cycle without the need for human intervention. The question is, what is driving the shift in corporate technology management?
Our recent survey on Managing Enterprise Technology Blind Spots shed some light on this question. We aimed to outline the business impact of how enterprises govern technology and their operations issues, expected investments, and where organizations can mature capabilities.
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A Must for IT Leaders: Understanding Enterprise Technology Management
Increasing awareness of holistically managing technology across the enterprise and how IT managers respond is necessary to achieve outcomes such as managing digital transformation projects. According to the survey findings, more than three quarters (76%) of companies use multiple inventory systems to locate data pertaining to a variety of technologies.
Because of this siloed approach, IT staff have been facing challenges such as shadow IT, SaaS adoption, workforce mobility, hybrid workplace, cyber threats, and business digitization dynamics. It directly impacts conventional IT asset discovery, lifecycle management, and security controls. In fact, the study mentioned above found that 71% of leaders reported an increased likelihood of a security breach and, of greater concern, the associated expenses.
It is common practice for companies to develop discrete management systems for the many categories of technology and functions performed by IT. However, to keep up with technological changes, IT departments now need to augment the traditional management systems that run their businesses. In fact, when asked about the financial impact of disjointed technology management, 45% agreed on wasted spending on software and cloud services, while 43% highlighted the wasted time tracking down assets and status affected Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR) and productivity.
Adding IT Assets Raises Firms Expenditures and Integration Concerns
Businesses are running into new overhead, costs, and integration challenges due to their increased use of information technology management tools. Many IT decision-makers now believe that wasted spending on software licenses or cloud services and unaccounted-for assets has impacted their business. It is becoming increasingly difficult to integrate and organize numerous technologies since they frequently overlap with one another or do not communicate with one another.
Taking into consideration that 34% of enterprises have between 100 and more than 200 SaaS applications in use, they need to be able to maximize their investments and have a view of the status of the entire tech stack. It comes as no surprise that some of the desired management capabilities are focused on key areas, including a unified view of technology and associated data, comprehensive asset discovery and tracking, security policy enforcement, lifecycle process automation, and mechanisms to improve the employee experience.
Additionally, they often rely on manual input(s) and humans as the primary mechanism for data management, which means that they are prone to inaccuracies and are constantly out of date. This is because manual input(s) and humans are the most basic forms of information management. The challenge of disconnected and out-of-date data has become more of an issue as the standards for compliance, auditing, and security standards have become more stringent.
Planning to Take Rapid Action on Enterprise Technology Management
Organizations need to manage and secure all critical IT assets, from endpoints and applications to networks, to close gaps and ensure compliance through a single source of truth. The reality is that the world of IT management is going through a pervasive and systematic change. In cloud-first hybrid environments, inventory inaccuracies and operational blind spots cost organizations millions of dollars annually. In fact, 71% of enterprises experienced risks and associated costs in the first quarter of the year.
However, on the bright side, the survey shed light on IT leaders realizing their own limitations, identifying demands, and planning to extend capabilities beyond conventional IT asset management tools to allow for broader and better security and IT posture.
More than half (52%) of those surveyed stated that they plan to act immediately on technology management this year. In fact, 11% have already started to work on projects to mitigate any blind spots. Also, 46% plan to move to a platform approach to secure their IT state.
Over the years, and with the change and speed in the adoption of new technology, it’s become clear that unifying inventory visibility, control, and process automation across an entire IT estate, allows teams to optimize resources, security, audits, digital experience, and spend.
Moving Forward in IT
IT service management (ITSM) tools, no matter how sophisticated or well-implemented, do not address the types, quantity, or movement of IT technologies. Companies can’t rely on separate, non-integrated solutions to handle endpoints, network infrastructure, and cloud infrastructure if they want to satisfy the demands placed on them by their IT departments. Instead, to achieve better IT administration, firms need to have complete visibility, lifecycle standards, and automation.
These components are critical to successfully supporting operational, financial, and security functions. As security becomes more challenging, organizations in the future will have to consider how to better leverage their current tools – endpoint, application, network infrastructure, cloud, and security management tools – to improve their security posture and cyber resilience.
How are you investing in enterprise technology management to enable greater efficiency and efficacy within your organization? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
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