Gartner Offers New Year’s Resolutions for IT Managers

Help in addressing economic issues

• By Chris McConnell
• 01/03/2002

A recent research note from analyst firm Gartner Group makes suggestions for IT managers involved in network and system management. The slow economy creates new considerations for managers, and it offers ways to help address economic issues.

Because of the down economy, Gartner says network spending will be subject to constraints in the first half of this year. Because of these limits, most spending will be limited to tactical, rather than strategic investments. It suggests enterprise IT managers focus their energies on making the most of existing purchases and optimizing performance.

Gartner also says that although the capital markets should loosen in the second half of 2002, changing economic conditions will have little impact on network and system management. The purchase of support systems often lag behind new initiatives, so money flowing into IT departments will go to new applications. Gartner expects IT managers will have to choose between supporting new projects and maintaining non-mission-critical applications.

The tough economy will also force IT departments to justify their existence in business terms, leading them to present themselves as service providers, rather than overhead. Gartner suggests IT managers carefully document services and costs, so informed outsourcing decisions can be made.

Because of the devastating effects of the September 11 attacks, a new emphasis on security and stability has risen. Gartner says IT managers should concentrate on multi-site and distributed architectures; so physical problems have a limited impact on IT.

Finally, Gartner predicts that Network and System Management vendors will experience a shakeout in 2002 and 2003. Because of slow spending, vendors will go out of business or be acquired by a more successful company. It believes at least one-third of management vendors will not exist by the end of next year.