I recently published a column in E-Commerce Times discussing the growing interest and adoption of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools among IT professionals seeking to better manage their increasingly complex IT environments.

Two announcements during the past week illustrate the growing convergence of the SaaS and managed services industries as well, a trend which I’ve been talking about for the past two years.

The first of these announcements came from ManageEngine which unveiled a free beta of its new SaaS-based network, systems and security management software capabilities.

ManageEngine is a quiet giant in the IT management industry with over 37,000 companies utilizing its traditional software solutions. It is also a subsidiary of India-based, AdventNet, Inc., which also owns Zoho, the increasingly popular SaaS office productivity solution provider.

While ManageEngine’s new OpManager On-Demand offerings do not currently include the Zoho tools, they capitalize on the same service delivery infrastructure and SaaS industry experience.

Although ManageEngine’s OpManager On-Demand is designed to serve IT managers within user organizations, the company is also packaging, pricing and positioning its SaaS suite to support Managed Service Providers (MSPs).

Girish Mathrubootham, ManageEngine’s VP,  is quoted in the company’s press release as saying, “We are seeing a paradigm shift in the way IT is being managed today as enterprises demand affordability and value immediately.”

This echos the feedback THINKstrategies and Cutter Consortium gathered from IT managers in 2007 in our survey research which found growing adoption of SaaS-based IT management tools.

NTRglobal and N-able Technologies also announced a joint partnership this week in which N-able will add NTRglobal’s SaaS-based remote support capabilities into N-able’s portfolio of managed service solutions.

Economic and environmental forces have dramatically increased the level of demand for remote management capabilities like those offered by NTRglobal.

While there is a growing array of players in the remote management arena, Derik Belair — N-able’s Vice President of Business Development — told me the company selected NTRglobal because of its proven functionality, global reach, channel support capabilities and long-term financial viability.

Both of these announcements are the latest indication that MSPs, as well as IT managers within organizations of all sizes, are seeking SaaS-based tools to more effectively and economically fulfill their IT management responsibilities.

managed services MSPs N-able NTRglobal SaaS Software-as-a-Service