IT under constant supervision – 5 adventages of BMC Discovery

Today, companies must rely on digital technologies in their operations. It means that the business IT environments grow in complexity. Physical servers, applications, services, the cloud, databases and hardware are not only indispensable, but also interconnected. How can one identify and understand these dependencies and their significance for business?

More and more enterprises are switching to remote work. Many were forced to do so due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new organisation of work has made employees use cloud-based solutions and mobile devices on a regular basis. IT environments have become more complex as a result.

On the other hand, IT administrators face the challenge of maintaining this complex infrastructure. It is no longer just a server room and computers located in one building. Now the entire set-up combines dispersed and diverse databases, systems and hardware elements. How can one ensure they function smoothly and guarantee business continuity?

Why does a company need the visibility of IT resources and their interconnections?

Each company uses various applications on a daily basis, including e-mail, accounting and HR tools. Some of them are hosted on physical servers, while others are cloud-based. Furthermore, enterprises often provide their own services based on the IT infrastructure, e.g. web servers. This IT environment is accessed by employees, customers and contractors via different kinds of devices. It is enough to remove just one server from such a network and the result is downtime of many services and applications. For this reason it is so important to understand the mutual interactions between the particular elements of the IT infrastructure and how they translate into business operations.

The times when all company systems could fit into one server are now long gone. Today a simple CRM system is dispersed among various servers. One contains the database, the other hosts the interface, and so on. Working with numerous applications and services, IT administrators are unable to identify which part of the infrastructure is responsible for the given system dimension. It happens they switch off a server and suddenly a whole service stops operating, because they did not know that this particular server hosted that particular service, explains Krzysztof Andrian, CEO at Concept Data.

BMS Discovery is a solution to this problem. This application allows for quick detection of relations as well as their visualisation and analysis in geographically dispersed resources covering even more than 100,000 servers. As a result, the IT department needs only a few minutes to see how the infrastructure and software interconnections impact business. Thanks to this solution, enterprises can operate more effectively, securely and in line with regulations.

Key advantages of the BMC Discovery implementation

By implementing BMC Discovery, companies get the real-time visibility across IT, i.e. uninterrupted insight into the operations of the IT infrastructure. Data regarding availability, interconnections and errors have impact on business and bring numerous benefits.

1. Security improvement

The use of different hardware platforms, operating systems and applications increases the risk of attacks. Hackers often exploit vulnerabilities as well as software or applications which lack necessary updates or support by the manufacturer. So it is enough that a company’s network includes one unnoticed server without software updates and the result is that confidential data can be breached and the entire network can be accessed by unauthorized persons. Such a server may continue operating even though administrators are convinced it has been removed. BMC Discovery will not let that happen.

2. Enhanced performance

Thanks to the access to such a comprehensive solution, teams can become more efficient in their management of IT services (ITSM) and IT infrastructure. They also get better at software auditing. The performance and availability of applications are also enhanced, since it is easier to predict potential problems as well as diagnose and eliminate them once they occur.

3. Cost reduction

BMC Discovery enables identification of unused hardware and software. This can provide a basis for the company’s decision about data centre cost optimisation, e.g. by decreasing the number of physical servers required for the support of IT operations.

4. Time and performance efficiency of IT departments

BMC Discovery allows IT departments to better understand their resources and various interrelations between those resources. In consequence, they become more efficient and respond quickly to any unpredicted situations. They can also automate some of their tasks. They do not have to look for sources of problems manually, e.g.

when a service is unavailable. As a result, they save time and improve performance.

5. Reduced problem-solving time

When they have a comprehensive and clear visibility of the infrastructure, IT departments can accelerate the process of solving the problems reported by users of applications and services. This means that teams are more effective, while employees, customers and contractors are more satisfied.

BMC Discovery evaluated by IDC

In 2019, IDC (International Data Corporation) surveyed the organisations that use BMC Discovery in order to evaluate the business value of this solution.

The results indicate that the value reach USD 4.18 million per year per organisation, which means a return on investment of 549%.

In addition, the implementation of BMC Discovery had the following advantages:

• Increase in the performance of the IT infrastructure management teams by 15%
• A return on investment in the system after 5.4 months
• Reduction in the number of physical servers by 8%
• Improvement in the performance of the ITSM teams by 8%
• Enhanced efficiency of technical support by 13%
• Reduction in unplanned downtime by 57%
• Reduction in the time of software audits by 19%
• Improvement in the performance of the control teams by 42%

The team at Concept Data has been implementing BMC Discovery in Polish companies for years. We will be glad to provide more information about the business advantages of this solution and its numerous possibilities. Feel free to contact us!

More about IT infrastructure management:

BMC Helix. Effective management of modern IT infrastructure

Shadow IT. A loophole for cybercriminals, a problem for businesses

Three challenges for Service Desks. How to support IT departments, employees and customers