IT bosses unhappy with systems

Many believe Unicenter and Tivoli may solve distributed problems,reports Cath Everett.

Most IT managers are dissatisfied with their distributed systems management software. But, according to Forrester Research, they should be careful when introducing new applications because of the transformation of the corporate landscape by the Internet.

Problems centre on a lack of standards, products that are unable to work together, and poor software distribution and deployment capabilities on the desktop, according to the analyst's report, Managing Internet Computing.

The inability of software to deal with heterogenous environments was also cited as a problem in the poll of 50 IT managers, all working for Fortune 1000 companies.

But while 28% thought their architecture was poor now and 38% thought it was fair, 46% expected it to be good in two years' time as they moved to management suites such as Computer Associates' Unicenter or IBM's Tivoli.

Jon Olsik, senior analyst with Forrester, warned: 'Companies looking to solve today's management woes need to look at individual problems, rather than introduce a whole management system that may become redundant.'