In order to implement and manage distributed systems, there is a need to use what is known as system management software. Assuming a company is big enough and has operations spread out far enough to warrant a distributed system, the advantages are fairly obvious. For a growing company, there is a cutoff point at which it becomes unrealistic to do individual installations on each station, and sort through the paper and electronic trail left by each user in order to centralize the entire setup.
This is where system management comes into the picture. If feasible, the company will benefit in all aspects. This includes lower IT and staff requirements, improved information sharing, enhanced security and the ability to automate monitoring and data collection.
Installation & Management: Fast and easy automation for new installations and upgrades is the core benefit. A company with a handful of computers all located in the same office can do individual installations. But it gets harder when a company has a large setup and a gazillion computers. Introduce system management, and the problems go away, the entire process is now streamlined and automated and needs a lot less effort and manpower.
Cost Reduction: The question isn't whether or not this software will reduce costs. It assuredly will. The only question is whether the cost of buying and implementing the software, and hiring or training a systems manager, is feasible for the company. On the other hand, it cuts down staffing and IT costs on an on-going basis.
But the possibilities are much bigger than this, since the system management infrastructure opens up pathways to install enterprise level systems such as ERP and enhance the client server IT architecture. This allows the company to expand its footprint, add new operations to the work flow and open branches which previously would either not have been required or would have been impossible to manage. Bottomline is that this is not just an IT help tool, but something which will ripple through the company's entire operation.
Security: System management has a huge impact on IT security. The same security settings are implemented on all stations, and any new policies are remotely implemented instantaneously on all the stations. Users can access any station and get the same settings and data, made possible by settings that apply to specific usernames and job or department levels. This makes the network more capable of withstanding external attacks.
Critical updates such as security patches for browsers and other software are automatically and simultaneously updated on all stations. This removes the threat of individual users ignoring update warnings for their own station. The same applies to updates for enterprise level anti-malware and anti-virus software. Hardware failure or data corruption on individual stations won't cause data loss because the data is being stored on servers with backup systems in place.
Monitoring: A huge improvement in monitoring capability is one of the biggest advantages here, other than cost effectiveness and automation. Since the data on the network can be monitored, it is possible to make adjustments to more effectively manage peak periods and down time. Employee monitoring helps management keep an eye on employees and detect work patterns.
To summarize, the immediate advantages of using system management are very much real and the possibilities even bigger. End of the day, each company has to make an informed decision about this based on its own size and growth curve. A cost benefit analysis to figure out the ROI of system management software would be a good place to begin.
