Enterprises have been advancing IT service delivery capabilities for quite some time, gaining intelligence about services and respective asset dependencies that affect the services, service level objectives (SLOs), and experience that support their business. Organizations continue to invest heavily in IT Service Management (ITSM ) functionality in terms of ticketing automation and maintaining the Configuration Items (CI) that comprise their Configuration Management Database (CMDB ). But these systems were not designed to encompass the volume and breadth of technology and business processes that CIOs and their teams must see, manage, and optimize.
IT staff now contend with significantly increased Shadow IT/development, SaaS adoption, workforce mobility, hybrid workplace, cyber threats, and business digitization dynamics. All of which are challenging conventional IT asset discovery, lifecycle management, and security controls. How are IT leaders governing technology, operational issues, and business impacts they are experiencing, and where do they intend to make investments? A recent survey of large enterprises revealed key findings behind what’s driving a change in enterprise technology management.
- 76% of enterprises are using multiple systems to find inventory data about different technologies
- 71% expressed increased risk of security breach and associated costs
It is commonplace for organizations to implement different management systems for different classes of technology and IT functions. As technologies evolve, IT departments will need to add or change their underlying IT management systems. For example, while the network team may use device discovery, mapping, and observation tools, the security team may use vulnerability scanners, endpoint security, and Network Access Control (NAC) systems to identify, classify, and monitor devices on their network – and now more likely remote or in the cloud. Each management system serves a distinct purpose, but there is no overarching solution to correlate technology inventory, orchestrate lifecycle processes, and ensure policy compliance. This is reflected in the broad range of security and operation issues that IT organizations are enduring.
When asked to share areas of pronounced financial and business impact due to disjointed technology management, the responses were:
- 45% wasted spend in software and cloud services
- 43% wasted time tracking down assets and status affected MTTR and productivity
- 32% Slow onboarding of new employees
- 23% Compliance audit fines
No doubt that you can’t manage what you don’t see. Unified asset visibility from accurate sources is core to all IT and security management frameworks. Failure to have insight on technology lifecycle status, ownership and location, operational state, or compliance is causing material repercussions for enterprise organizations. Equally challenging is the limited means to automate tasks that require integration across different technology management systems to fulfill a variety of business processes across security, financial, experience, compliance, and audit domains. In today’s hyper-competitive market to satisfy customers and employees alike, IT organizations that have not progressed in technology intelligence and management are not only feeling the effect of weakened IT responsiveness and reputation, but also diminished resources and lost budget.
The survey’s silver lining was that IT leaders recognize current enterprise technology management deficiencies, have prioritized requirements, and plan to take action to extend capabilities outside of conventional IT asset management tooling.
- 52% intend to take corrective action for technology management this year with 11% having projects already underway
- 57% are seeking unified technology visibility and source of truth
- 41% want to orchestrate lifecycle processes across existing management systems
While ITSM and the use of CMDB help to ensure and improve service delivery, these solutions do not solve for the types, numbers, and movement of technology being used across the entire IT empire. Continuing to solely rely on disparate systems to manage classes of technology, from endpoints and applications, to network and cloud infrastructure, will not address modern IT business requirements. Now is the time for CIOs and their organization to augment their technology management capabilities with integrated visibility, lifecycle standardization, and automation that is the foundation for operational, financial, and security efficacy.
The full Managing Enterprise Technology Blind Spots survey, conducted by Gatepoint Research, is available here.
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