On Demand Systems Management

Transcription

1 On Demand Systems Management White Paper Feb 26, 2008 Copyright 2008 TriActive Inc.

2 Companies of all sizes are using hosted applications as revenue generation becomes top priority. This coupled with shorter implementation times makes the hosted model very attractive. *Source: Rob Bois AMR Research The benefits of on demand have been clearly proven over the last few years in the CRM space by companies like ADP, Salesforce, and Opsource. People and organizations slowly became comfortable with allowing their private data onto the Internet. The final adoption of SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) adoption by the on-line banking industry made it so that SaaS is widely accepted. Gartner, tracking SaaS adoption and expenditures reports that traditional on premise systems management solutions are declining at 4% each year, while SaaS implementations are growing at 21% CAGR with an expected growth of 114% from 2006 to Introduction Today s typical IT organization has two main objectives: Enable end-user productivity Support core business objectives The Advantage of Automation IT staff often spend a significant amount of time working on the infrastructure to achieve these goals, rather than working on the goals themselves. To start, it can take months to evaluate and select a traditional on premise solution. Then, most IT departments spend another one to two months implementing the solution and waiting to realize the return on investment (ROI). Finally, maintaining a complex solution (including hardware, software, database) of multiple point products can be time consuming enough to distract IT staff from their primary objectives. SaaS answers the call to providing an IT department s true function enabling end-user productivity and supporting core business objectives. The TriActive SaaS solutions deploy within minutes and they maintain the infrastructure, Richard Nitzsche, the CIO of Perkins & Will, stated, TriActive s technology enabled the product to be fully deployed in a few days and therefore we were able to immediately realize the benefits. Instead of wasting time on infrastructure evaluation, procurement, and deployment, IT staffs can focus on internal company needs and improving end-user productivity. Benefits at a Glance: No upfront investment in hardware, software, or database No hardware, software, or database upgrades or maintenance - EVER! New solutions are all integrated and available on demand Bugs, enhancements, and updates are all automatic and behind the scenes

3 Lowering Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Research studies performed by the leading IT research firms indicate that the best way to reduce the costs associated with the management and support of IT assets is to leverage an integrated set of solutions. Integrating the asset inventory, help desk, software delivery, remote management, and patch management capabilities into a cohesive, easy to use system, provides users a consistent experience, reducing the learning curve and increasing productivity. It also provides data critical for executive decisions on strategic and operational activities. Obtaining such an integrated solution can be a costly and time-consuming process, however. By integrating help desk, asset inventory and remote control capabilities, companies can lower their monthly IT personnel costs by 30% through the improved efficiencies of the IT support staff. *Source: IDC In order to achieve this goal companies can either purchase a complex enterprise solution or purchase multiple solutions to address specific point requirements. Either way, the implementation, customization, and support costs can be daunting. Recognition for any return on the investment is typically delayed by the lengthy timeframe required to complete implementation and realize any productivity gains. Many organizations have experienced the cost of implementing traditional software as 90 percent or more of the total cost versus the invoice cost of the software. A different approach is necessary in order to achieve the benefits stated above without incurring the overhead of building and maintaining an infrastructure to support the IT tools. TrammellCrow Company experienced direct savings of over eight times the cost of the TriActive solutions, implementing only Asset Inventory and Remote Tools. IT organizations can gain significant efficiency advantages by using the TriActive systems management on demand solution: No costs There is no initial capital expenditure for HW, SW, or database No risk We assume the risk of operations including staffing, maintenance, and upgrades Improved time-to-value Reduced costs and faster implementation result in a rapid return on investment Improved implementation We are experienced in the implementation process, which leads to a quicker, more reliable deployments Rapid Deployment As a hosted solution, deploying the solution is done in a matter of minutes and the system is fully functional Value - With the SaaS solution, you only pay a small operations expense each month. There are no depreciating assets, annual upgrade protection issues, maintenance, etc. All of these benefits contribute to maximizing the investment in systems management tools, all at a lower cost that traditional software tools. Comprehensive Systems Management On Demand Three main functions of today s IT departments: Managing their IT assets/inventory/end-user productivity Maintaining a Help Desk or Service Desk Managing software and patch distribution

4 The TriActive Systems Management suites provide tools to solve these common functions and much more. The subscription program and SaaS availability allow you to add additional services as you need them. Having the ability to quickly access satellite users has provided our team with the ability to fix issues and keep the business running. Because of the ease-of-use, low maintenance and cost, and robust functionality, we elected to adopt TriActive s Suite as our service desk application. *Source: Ruben Reyes IT Manager - Hoovers The solutions provide an automated Asset Inventory system, a full-featured Help Desk ticketing system, and a sophisticated Remote Tools capability that goes beyond simply taking over the remote keyboard, mouse, and display. TriActive also offers Patch Management, Software Distribution, License Harvesting and Compliance, System and Network Device Monitoring, a complete Security Patch Compliance system, Reporting, Software Utilization, and a timely and thorough accounting of critical IT resource activity and status. Not only do we integrate these solutions, but also make them accessible anytime, anywhere. All Help Desk technicians need is access to an Internet connection, and they can manage the needs of their end users (LAN and off the network). These integrated solutions contrast with point product solutions that have bolted-on components with minimal integration at best, typically requiring significant configuration to be activated and used. With our services, IT departments can be fully deployed are realizing ROI within days. IT organizations can gain significant efficiency advantages by using the TriActive systems management on demand solution: Asset Inventory The TriActive Asset Management suite provides an on-line, automated process to track, manage, and generate reports on IT asset inventory, including complete hardware and software inventory with software versions and number of copies by application. Systems or asset managers can view the hardware and software of user systems as well as search for a single device or group of devices based on criteria such as processor, operating system, application, and much more. Comprehensive Security Assessment reports quickly show systems that are not fully protected by up-to-date antivirus software and critical Microsoft patches. Detailed historical tracking provides events that occur on PCs such as: RAM dissapearing, games that are installed and magically dissappear, etc. making it easier for IT staff to troubleshoot systems reporting problems. Help Desk The TriActive Help Desk suite provides trouble ticketing and tracking as well as management reporting and trending. The Help Desk integrates everything help desk analysts need to solve their users problems. For example, trouble tickets are integrated with the user s most recent system inventory information for rapid troubleshooting and resolution. Remote tools are accessible for immediate repair of remote machines. End users also have desktop access to open and track their tickets. integration allows remote updating of ticket status, assignment, and work history. It also provides an easy interface for IT staff to manage or re-assign their Help Desk tickets from their BlackBerry device. Additional features include workflow, knowledge base, community, and much more.

5 Patch Management More than 90 percent of all security breaches involve a software vulnerability caused by a missing patch that the IT department already knows about. *Source: FBI - Carnegie Mellon University Study Patch Management provides security compliance analysis, automatic Microsoft bulletin downloads and packaging, and automated distribution. It also delivers executive reporting of patch distribution actions, compliance coverage across the enterprise, and identified vulnerabilities and potential severities. Automated patch downloads and approval allow for immediate deployment as soon as the bulletins are ready. Integrated Reporting The Reporting solution provides the IT manager with an aggregate view of the most important aspects of the enterprise and enables the use of meaningful data. When combined with other solutions such as resolution activity from Help Desk or inventory tracking from Asset Management, reporting provides a timely and thorough accounting of critical IT resource activity and status. IT executives can view these reports, share with others, on a Web dashboard customized to their preferences: Typical Console Dashboard View Security The TriActive Management services are housed at the offsite TriActive Network Operations Center (NOC), a fully secured and monitored network facility. The NOC provides all of the hardware and software needed to maintain the most current versions of the systems management solutions. Our IT staff mans the NOC 24x7 so you and your staff don t have to. The facility has been ISO9001:2000 certified for all processes. All core air conditioning, electrical, and necessary supporting technology have multiple redundant implementations. The NOC is has a SAS70 certified security rating, and all communications from your systems to the NOC are SSL secured with data being compressed and 128-bit encrypted.

6 Infrastructure The unique management services use a design comprised of the following three components: MicroAgent / Delegate this component resides at the customer location and helps provide communications between the managed endpoints and the Network Operations Center (NOC). Network Operations Center the infrastructure needed to run and maintain the most current versions of the systems management services, housed at a SAS70 secure network facility. By initiating better systems management, companies can save up to 30% per asset in the first year, and an additional 5-10% every year thereafter. *Source: Gartner Systems Manager Portal a browser provides customers with access through a secure Web-based interface to the configuration and systems manage ment services. No Ongoing Maintenance When a traditional software package is purchased, there is a license fee associated with it, as well as upgrade protection, such that the purchaser may obtain future versions and upgrades of the software as they become available. While the license fee is a fixed cost, it is the only fixed cost of the entire equation. Each time a new upgrade or patch is made available, customers are responsible for testing the upgrade, ensuring that adequate hardware and staff resources are available, distributing the upgrade, and troubleshooting any failures or flaws as a result of the upgrade. Performing these steps repeatedly can become a very expensive proposition. Gartner estimates that IT managers spend as much as two hours a day managing patches. Although IT managers fully understand the need to patch their systems (servers, workstations and desktops), the tediousness, staff dedication, and deployment risks can affect when and how often systems get patched. This cycle of test, validate, rollout not only occurs for each new update to the software, but is also required for all updates to all components used in delivering that software including the hardware, operating system, and database on which the IT tools are running. The true cost of that cheap software package has just risen exponentially due to all of the required hidden infrastructure and maintenance. As a hosted solution, TriActive manages all of this maintenance for their partners and customers. TriActive has a dedicated quality assurance staff focused on performance, usability, and functionality testing to ensure each new release is properly regression tested and performs as well, if not better, than the previous release. Furthermore, when releases are scheduled, the customer does nothing. TriActive utilizes a maintenance window to perform the upgrade, and when the customers come back the next day, they have access to all of the new features and capabilities. This hands-off approach extends all the way down to the MicroAgent that is installed on the customer endpoints. The MicroAgent has the capability to upgrade, expand, and heal itself.

7 Hosted desktop management systems offer features and control similar to conventional onsite suites yet remove the burden of maintaining the necessary infrastructure. Benefits of the hosted model include quaranteed levels of service and availability, the ability to increase of decrease usage levels as needed, easy support for remote workers and a reduction in related IT workload. *Source: Network Computing Conclusion Companies that purchase traditional software packages to provide similar services spend a tremendous amount of resources on the infrastructure trying to make it as secure, reliable, and scalable as TriActive has with their NOC. To financial officers, IT tools are often considered an unavoidable expenditure rather than capital budget items that help drive the company objectives. Forrester Research, Inc. forecasts the compound annual growth rate of systems management to be 21% by What financial officers do not recognize or appreciate is that if an IT tool fails to perform, or performs poorly due to lack of sufficient planning and infrastructure to support it, the entire company suffers. Lost productivity translates directly into higher expenses and/or more staff required performing the same tasks. Selecting an appropriate suite of IT tools to lower the TCO and raise productivity of the entire company, while still holding to the bottom line, is now possible with the TriActive management solutions. Only an organization that has spent as much effort and time designing and implementing a secure, redundant facility as TriActive can help an IT organization achieve that goal. All of our customers are leveraging the investment that TriActive has made. They are all experiencing a peace of mind that their IT tools are helping them save money. For instance, TrammellCrow Company experienced direct savings of over eight times the cost of the service, having implemented only Asset Inventory and Remote Tools. TriActive customers are all becoming more efficient since they are no longer firefighting or working just to keep their IT tools running. They are all actively assisting in the achievement of the corporate strategic directives. SystemsManagement OnDemand powered by TriActive, IT Hosting your success, and Systems Management On Demand are trademarks of TriActive, Inc. Copyright 2008 TriActive, Inc.