To help apply and manage distributed systems, there is a demand to use what is typically known as system management software. Assuming an organization is big enough and has operations spread out substantially enough to warrant a distributed system, the extensive benefits are fairly self evident. For a growing company, you will find a cutoff point at which it becomes not viable to do individual installations on each station, and read through the paper and electronic trail left by each user as a way to centralize the complete setup.

The concept basically revolves around a thorough scrutiny of information systems in business to ensure that they are up and running. This involves the acquisition of proper peripherals and software so that they can be used in the appropriate areas. They are then assembled and maintained using the latest updates to ensure that all the set goals are met at the right time. In simple terms, the major role it plays is to ensure that a business operates within a secure, reliable and easy to maintain IT atmosphere. It also encompasses hosting services and managed services in addition to monitoring information systems services.

This is done remotely so even when the office is closed things can be repaired, slow servers can be noticed and repaired, and when the office reopens in the morning everyone will find that their systems work exactly the way they should, and they are none the wiser of any problems that existed or were repaired the night before.

Remote management means that you are paying an individual or provider to monitor your networks at all times. This means trusting someone, but it also means that you don't have to wait for something to go wrong to call someone in order to help you. It also means that a problem can be fixed as soon as it pops up instead of waiting for it to grow and grow and possibly have a domino effect on the whole system, slowing or shutting everything down.

Many companies go with it because it is more cost effective. While you have to pay for the assistance, you may find that the basic service to have the system monitored is very low and even when there is a problem that needs to be addressed it is more cost effective to have the problem fixed remotely instead of having someone come out to the office and fix the problem.

Regardless of how well planned an information system is, there will almost certainly be hitches. For example the system may be unable to generate a report that needs to be made available to certain managers or the report may not be in appropriate format or certain employees may be unable to access data that they need. To put these problems under control, the installed system must be tested while appropriate modification is made.


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.