The Service Management Soapbox

In early 2004, I published a META Group paper entitled The Expanding Operational Maturity Gap wherein I formally introduced the term punitive outsourcing. It has become one of my favorite wakeup calls to IT because it taps into that visceral paranoia invoked by any phrase containing the word outsourcing. Punitive outsourcing is self explanatory and almost always elicits a sober chuckle of resignation. It seems a lot of people reluctantly concur that their future is in peril unless something changes.

Fear is an effective incentive to improve. While outsourcing is an expletive to some, the only true reason to fear outsourcing is when it is used as an alternative to the internal IT organization’s ineptitude. This is punitive outsourcing. If you can’t deliver, business leaders will seek someone who can.

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One aspect of IT management automation that has frustrated me for years is the relative lackluster progress we’ve made in the area of performance. With all the other wonderful innovations we’ve made, I’m confounded that performance remains largely in the dark ages. This need not be. This must not be. We are finally beginning to see welcome changes in both available software solutions and more importantly, attitudes toward performance. If we hope to attain true service management, this must be a priority.

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Management tool integration has long been the bane of IT Operations organizations. Getting one tool to communicate with another has always been difficult because there are far too many incompatible data definitions that are used to integrate data from one tool to another. Each vendor has its own data model and various APIs to exchange data. Standards appeared in various forms from such bodies at the DMTF and OASIS as an attempt to address this issue. Despite their clarity and noble ambitions, adoption has proven lackluster.

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As many of you now know, I have resigned my marketing position at EMC. I am still a big fan of EMC’s management technology, having played a major role in its evolution and the expansion of EMC’s ITSM market presence. My affinity for Smarts, a company EMC acquired in early 2005, is what compelled me to join EMC a bit later in 2005. Since then, we’ve grown the business significantly, acquiring nLayers and Voyence in the process. The future remains bright for EMC as a credible challenger to the “Big Four” (HP, IBM, CA, BMC) in the management market. Despite all of this wonderful progress, it was time for me to move on. I wish my delightful and brilliant EMC colleagues nothing but the best as they continue to build the future EMC powerhouse.

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