Rightsizing IT Management

Small and medium businesses are no longer being left out in the cold my IT management vendors focused solely on the biggeste enterprises. IBM Tivoli is the latest vendor to get smart about delivering IT management solutions designed specifically to meet the cost and complexity requirements of small and medium sized businesses. With its Tivoli Express Portfolio, Big Blue is delivering a suite of products that provide levels of network monitoring, storage management, asset provisioning and user access aimed at smaller businesses that don't require the same escalation tools their larger counterparts need.The IBM Tivoli products promise to provide a level of sophistication that SMBs can use without the sometimes daunting features built into enterprise management products that can be too complicated for most smaller companies. And the IBM Tivoli suite comes at an attractive price point that SMBs can actually afford.

Other enterprise management vendors including BMC and CA are working to design IT management suites and tools specifically for smaller businesses. These products aim to provide similar features to those found in their enterprise products which map IT to business processes but scaled to fit small and medium businesses.

All in all, a win-win for both system administrators who need better management technology, and for vendors looking to tap a market opportunity.