More mature management companies to watch, Part 2

Network/Systems Management This newsletter is sponsored by IBM Six critical questions for successful SOA This paper presents six questions IT operations should ask the enterprise architecture team before making the leap to a more dynamic, SOA-based environment. To fully capitalize on the value of SOA, IT operations must work with the enterprise SOA team to define standards to ensure efficient implementation, management and operation. Network World's Network/Systems Management Newsletter, 09/19/07 More mature management companies to watch, Part 2 By Denise Dubie There is never a shortage of management companies to watch. That is partly because management crosses all IT domains and is a necessity not a luxury for IT managers. If you roll out a new application, you have to manage it. When you invest in more storage, you have to manage it. When you start a migration or upgrade of desktop operating systems, you have to manage it. Get the idea? I could go on forever, and really I can. But I won't because IT executives know they are expected to immediately master managing all new technologies that are introduced to their environments. For instance, VoIP, virtualization, SOA and other emerging technologies are expected to perform out of the gate. Find out the Latest Power and Cooling Options If deploying a liquid-based cooling system isn't in your budget, listen to this Webcast, Data Center Power and Cooling Options. Hear industry expert advice on steps you can take today to create a more energy efficient data center. Advice ranges from improving communication between IT and facility management to searching out and eliminating all "dead servers". Get more details here. And with new technologies, come new vendors. Take virtualization, specifically x86 server virtualization. The ease of rolling out these servers has its upsides and downsides, management being a downside. And because of that vendors, ranging from one of last year's pick to watch CiRBA, to one of this year's choices Veeam. A little update aside, CiRBA has been chosen as a standard technology by large outsourcing and consulting firms -- such as IBM Global Services -- for data center consolidation and virtualization engagements. Yet even with all these successful start-ups, you can never discount the incumbents. HP is in the process of closing its $1.6 billion of Opsware, BMC recently acquire run-book automation vendor RealOps and IBM is topping Gartner and IDC lists for share in user provisioning and software configuration markets, respectively. And virtualization market dominator VMware announced it had acquired virtualization management start-up Dunes Technologies. Admittedly it seems CA has been quiet since its annual stockholders meeting last month, but still you can't discount such a large software vendor. Management market watching gets even more exciting when the names of large vendors such as Microsoft, Oracle and Symantec are tossed into the discussion. And for me, one of the best parts of watching start-ups is trying to determine which ones will remain stand-alone and which will become business units within the larger management vendors.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Senior Editor Denise Dubie covers the technologies, products and services that address network, systems, application and IT service management for Network World. E-mail Denise. This newsletter is sponsored by IBM Six critical questions for successful SOA This paper presents six questions IT operations should ask the enterprise architecture team before making the leap to a more dynamic, SOA-based environment. To fully capitalize on the value of SOA, IT operations must work with the enterprise SOA team to define standards to ensure efficient implementation, management and operation. ARCHIVE Archive of the Network/Systems Management Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007