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Technology Audits - published 23/08/2010 - Stephen Mann
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As IT moves from being perceived as a provider of technology to a services provider that enables business users to drive the organization, the need for CIOs to be able to demonstrate that current resources are being deployed effectively is a fundamental requirement. To many in IT, automation is seen as the codification of run books, but as rPath demonstrates, its true potential is to transform the way IT manages its relationship with the business units and the technology.
Technology Audits - published 23/08/2010 - Roy Illsley
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Organizations have typically deployed asset management tools to track and manage installed software in the context of purchased licenses, to assess under- and over-provision and remedy accordingly. While this approach and enabling tools can somewhat meet an organization’s need to reduce IT costs, the inability to track the relevance and actual usage of an application is suboptimal. Obvious efficiencies can be made, but many other opportunities are missed. Survey, by Scalable Software, is an IT asset life…
Technology Audits - published 16/08/2010 - Karthik Balakrishnan, Stephen Mann
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Founded in 1989, Planview has been a consistent leader in the portfolio management arena. In 2007, it further strengthened its position with the acquisition of Business Engine and its customer base, intellectual property, and employee capabilities. Planview Enterprise 10.1 is an enterprise-level solution that:
Technology Audits - published 23/07/2010 - Stephen Mann
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Small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face many of the same pressures and problems as their much larger counterparts, but need software that reduces the complexity and timescales involved in implementations to provide a faster route to operational use and the attainment of benefits. Vivantio Service Desk is just such a solution for requirements relating to service-desk operations, and can also be used for other needs involving management of contacts and enquiries.
Technology Audits - published 08/07/2010 - Alan Rodger
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Corporate IT functions are being squeezed, not only by the enterprise-wide mandate to “deliver more with less”, but also by IT-specific drivers, to demonstrate business value through business alignment and the need to maximize the availability of business-critical services. IT departments within medium-to-large organizations have also long faced the increasingly complex task of provisioning IT services to business users (via multiple IT teams or functions acting in unison) to support business priorities....
Technology Audits - published 14/06/2010 - Balachandar Ganesh, Stephen Mann
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The impact of client devices within an IT strategy is becoming more significant as desktop virtualization and cloud computing adoption accelerate. Wyse Technology is addressing this with its Cloud Client Computing product portfolio, which brings together thin-client technology, new categories of zero clients, and cloud PCs, with virtualization and infrastructure software.
Technology Audits - published 02/06/2010 - Balachandar Ganesh, Roy Illsley
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vSphere is the most capable of all the current x64 bare-metal server virtualization platforms. It also offers the greatest degree of integration with third-party networking and storage systems, and the broadest support for guest operating systems.
Technology Audits - published 27/05/2010 - Tim Stammers
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As the adoption of cloud computing services becomes more prevalent, IT organizations face a variety of new IT service management challenges. Not only will they need to ensure that existing policies, processes, procedures, and supporting technologies are fit for externally delivered IT services, but also that IT remains a relevant and effective part of the IT service delivery chain.
White Papers - published 21/05/2010 - Stephen Mann
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EMC Ionix Service Manager (formerly Infra) is a module of EMC Ionix, an infrastructure management solution that comprises four separate modules, the other three of which are Ionix for Data Center Automation and Compliance, Ionix for Service Discovery and Mapping, and Ionix for IT Operations Intelligence. It is a functionally rich enterprise-level ITSM solution that is strongly aligned with the ITIL v3 framework of ITSM best practice. It provides out-of-the-box ITIL-aligned functionality for the core ITIL…
Technology Audits - published 10/05/2010 - Stephen Mann
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GlassHouse Technologies’ managed services provide businesses with the option to out-task any of a range of IT operations, including storage management, backup and recovery, virtual server, security and database management. Within each area the level of service spans from the use of SaaS-hosted monitoring and reporting services, to fully managed services.
Technology Audits - published 05/05/2010 - Tim Stammers
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IT service management is applicable to most enterprises, given the criticality of IT to modern business operations. Related management thinking and enabling technologies are both at a high level of maturity, with ITIL adoption in particular continuing to gain a foothold in enterprise IT organizations worldwide. These levels of maturity, however, somewhat belie the real level of IT service management capabilities within enterprises. While ITIL adoption continues to grow, it is all too easy for enterprises…
Technology Evaluation and Comparison Reports - published 04/05/2010 - Balachandar Ganesh, Stephen Mann, Vamshi Krishna Mokshagundam
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In June 2007 the UK’s Office of Government Commerce (OGC) officially launched the refreshed version of ITIL (formerly known as the IT Infrastructure Library), the IT service management best practice framework. While the speed of v3 uptake has been slower than expected, ITIL adoption levels continue to grow worldwide. In transitioning to ITIL v3 IT organizations must fully understand that v3 adoption requires considerable organizational, process, and technology change – even more so than ITIL v2.
White Papers - published 30/04/2010 - Stephen Mann
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The move to server virtualization was all about reducing the footprint and power required to deliver computing resources to an enterprise. However, it also established itself as an approach to delivering flexible computational resources that can be quickly redeployed to meet business demand. The technologies used left a performance bottleneck, the server I/O capabilities. A typical server has adapters, switch ports, and cables for connecting to Network Attached Storage (NAS), Direct Attached Storage (DAS…
Technology Audits - published 29/04/2010 - Roy Illsley, Somak Roy
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Traditional PCs are becoming more powerful in terms of processing capability. This is driven by the applications executed on them demanding increased resources such as memory and processing power. This consumes a significant amount of power, generates noise and heat, and requires a large footprint on the desktop, which makes optimizing floor space more complex and costly. When the management cost of PCs is also taken into account, the total cost of owning these assets can be significant. IGEL has develop…
Technology Audits - published 27/04/2010 - Roy Illsley
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Corporate IT functions are being squeezed not only by the enterprise-wide mandate to “deliver more with less” but also by IT-specific drivers to demonstrate business value through business alignment, and the need to maximize the availability of business-critical applications. In addressing these issues, business adoption of the ITIL IT service management best-practice framework has raised the profile of, and increased the necessity for, tools to support IT service management processes. Enterprise IT orga…
Technology Audits - published 27/04/2010 - Stephen Mann
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To ensure it can add real business value, the introduction of any new technology must serve a specific purpose or be part of a strategic decision. The separation into strategic and tactical reasons for why a technology is introduced has major implications for the impact it will have with regard to how IT can manage it. One such technology is virtualization, and regardless of how it started, most organizations are on a journey that will ultimately lead to some form of cloud computing.
Technology Audits - published 22/04/2010 - Roy Illsley
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Many organizations suffer from being unable to understand and control IT costs and value adequately, and do not use processes to ensure these costs can be kept in alignment with the organization’s business needs. Apptio’s software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based Technology Business Management (TBM) solution offers a broad range of processes and technology-based capabilities for IT organizations at different maturity levels in dealing with IT costs, budgets, forecasts, chargebacks, quality of service, utilizati…
Technology Audits - published 22/03/2010 - Alan Rodger
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Windows 7 is Microsoft’s successor to the much-maligned Windows Vista PC operating system. Compared to Windows XP, which is the current “standard” operating system for enterprise PCs, Windows 7 offers improved system security and a range of general enhancements. It does this while maintaining adequate performance on existing hardware and good levels of compatibility with existing software and peripherals. When deployed alongside the Microsoft Desktop Opmtization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assurance (an opt…
Technology Audits - published 18/03/2010 - Richard Edwards
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BMC is a key player in the ITSM tool marketplace with its Service Desk Express and Remedy ITSM Suite offerings, which make it the IT service-desk market leader in terms of installed customer base. Delivered under the banner of Business Service Management (BSM) for ITIL, BMC Remedy ITSM Suite is a functionally rich ITSM solution to help enterprise-level IT organisations address the challenges they face in an IT-dependent business world. The suite is built entirely on the Remedy Action Request System, a co…
Technology Audits - published 26/02/2010 - Stephen Mann
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In this technology-dependent business world, IT functions are not only subject to the enterprise-wide mandate to ‘deliver more with less’, but also IT-specific challenges that include the demonstration of the business value delivered by IT and the need to maximise the availability of business-critical services at an optimal cost. CA’s portfolio of IT service management (ITSM) solutions is an IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v3-aligned, fully integrated software suite that can help an IT organisation addr…
Technology Audits - published 24/02/2010 - Balachandar Ganesh, Stephen Mann
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ASG’s IT Service Management (ITSM) solution, ASG-BSP for IT Service Management, is a set of loosely integrated products from ASG and its strategic partner PS’Soft. By combining the two companies’ software portfolios ASG has created an IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)-aligned ITSM solution that addresses the corporate need for technology to support Service Desk and Incident, Problem, Change, Request, Asset and Configuration, and Service Level Management processes. Designed for enterprise-level deployments…
Technology Audits - published 24/02/2010 - Stephen Mann
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The need for IT to demonstrate business value and maximise the availability of business-critical IT services is continuing to focus corporate IT attention on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v3 framework of IT Service Management (ITSM) best practices. LANDesk Service Desk is a process-driven ITSM solution for medium-to-large organisations that is strongly aligned to ITIL. It meets the core ITIL v3 processes out of the box, providing support for the full range of Self-Service, Service Desk, Request, I…
Technology Audits - published 19/02/2010 - Stephen Mann
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IT departments in medium-sized-to-large organisations have long been faced with the increasingly complex task of provisioning IT services to business users via multiple IT teams or functions acting in unison to support business priorities. They are now, however, being squeezed by a variety of business pressures and constraints that require effective IT Service Management, potentially through ITIL adoption. FrontRange IT Service Management 7 is strongly aligned to the ITIL v3 framework of ITSM best practi…
Technology Audits - published 17/02/2010 - Stephen Mann
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assyst, from Axios Systems, is a mature IT service management (ITSM) solution that delivers against the corporate technology need for support of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v3 processes and methodology in pursuit of IT service delivery excellence. Axios Systems is one of the longest-established vendors within the ITSM software sector (over 20 years) and complements assyst with services that include training and consultancy via a workforce of ITIL-certified and experienced ITSM practitioners. The sol…
Technology Audits - published 10/02/2010 - Stephen Mann
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