EMA Blog: Business Intelligence and IT Management

On the one hand, many in the industry have begun todismiss the CMDB as well past its prime, at least in terms of industry hype and attention. For this rather significant population, the CMDB has evolved into a complex and demanding data store with tangible but difficult-to-justify benefits, with questionable relationships to cloud computing and [...]

At the beginning of this month, EMA analysts were asked for their predictions about what 2012 might bring. Responses spanned management solutions across applications, systems, network, security, services, assets, desktops, and mobile devices, as well as business intelligence and content management. The results were surprisingly cohesive, and as a whole reflected core requirements in analytics, [...]

See Dennis’ recent article on APM and BSM, posted at APM Digest, here: http://www.apmdigest.com/apm-and-bsm-evolution-confusion-and-business-ownership

The industry seems to be nearing an inflection point in its attitudes towards cloud computing—as best I can tell from headlines, commentaries and ongoing dialog with IT deployments and vendors.   If I had to put a few simple words around it, the era of “mythic hype” surrounding cloud is nearing its end and diffusing into a much [...]

See Dennis’ recent blog post on the state of BSM Analytics, posted at BSM Digest, here: http://www.bsmdigest.com/bsm-analytics-what-are-they-and-why-should-you-care-part-one

See Dennis’ recent blog post on the state of cloud computing, posted at BSM Digest, here: http://www.bsmdigest.com/clouds-iron-fist

Maybe the 21st Century is the Age of Ecosystems.  I suppose the largest for now is our planet.   Taken abstractly, the term “ecosystem” can apply well beyond natural and manmade interdependencies, to political, religious and business- and organizational-driven ecosystems.  And while the concept is a good one, and in some senses a cause for optimism— [...]

The notion that the CMDB is now entering a “mature” phase
is naïve, and in many respects refuted by the high levels of innovation
attested to here. We are admittedly looking at toddlers learning
to walk, but what a transformation they may bring to the market, and to our
whole view of service management, as they take their first few steps!!

EMA consulting once did an analysis of why strategic service management initiatives fail.  These ranged from cross-domain performance management initiatives, to configuration management initiatives with CMDB/CMS enabling foundations,  to company-wide asset management initiatives to name a few.    Of the top ten reasons for failure, only the bottom two (Integration and Discovery) were technology-related.    Three of [...]

I had originally intended to make this blog about mental health.  A supportive article for those of you trying to support change in your own environment wrestling with the stubbornly persistent caricatures and silos still so dominant in many IT organizations. It was inspired by a rather nasty line in a novel my one of [...]