I’ve just returned from my fourth trip to Las Vegas in four months where I spent three days attending my second annual Symantec Vision user conference and worldwide industry analyst briefing. The event offered a number of important insights regarding the state of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), as well as the managed services market.

I’ve stated in this blog numerous times, we are entering a pivotal new stage in the evolution of the SaaS market in which IT professionals are starting to view on-demand services as a powerful means of addressing many of their age-old management challenges, rather than a threat to their operations.

The Symantec executives who spoke at the conference and shared their candid views with me during the event confirmed my perspective by reporting that they are seeing rising receptivity toward SaaS ‘out-tasking’ alternatives to traditional management products among the … Read More »

In my last blog entry I listed a number of reasons “Why IT Now Sees SaaS As A Savior.” Dan Druker of Intacct, has done a superb job embellishing and expanding upon my ideas on his own blog.

Here’s another important reason why IT is embracing SaaS which I forgot to include in my last blog entry, but may supercede the other reasons I outlined long-term — SaaS enables IT to fulfill its role as an internal service provider.The idea of the IT department serving as an internal service provider to corporate end-users and strategic business units, as well as customers and partners, was first suggested during the late 1990s when an explosion of external service providers (xSPs) emerged in response to deregulation of the telecommunications industry.

While the idea had plenty of theoretical justification and support, most IT departments were unable … Read More »

The acquisition hit parade in the IT management arena continues. On Friday, BMC purchased RealOps and on Monday HP acquired Opsware (and Neoware).

The similarilities between the two acquired companies is noteworthy, as is the opportunity for the acquirors to market their new assets to enterprises, as well as managed service providers (MSPs).

IT management has always been an issue of concern, but until recently it has never been a lucrative market for network and system management (NSM) platforms and tools. As IT becomes more pivotal to business operations and optimizing the performance of IT becomes more essential for business success, the importance of effective IT management has grown.

It has become increasingly apparent that enterprises, as well as MSPs, need as many tools as they can find to help them automate as much of the IT management function as possible. Market studies … Read More »