Systems management refers to a broad set of responsibilities and activities focused on deploying, administering and maintaining an organization’s IT infrastructure and systems.
As IT has become critical to the success of most companies and organizations, so has systems management.
Effective systems management tools and practices can make use of a wide range of technologies that enable administrators to perform management tasks efficiently.
A typical example is remote system access and control by IT managers, both when a system OS is present and when an OS is absent (for example, when a machine is shut-down over a vacation period).
These technologies are designed to:
- Minimize on-site IT maintenance
- Improve performance and system availability
- Maximize remote visibility and access to local systems by IT managers
For a functional and cost-efficient operation, all the parts of an IT infrastructure need to be coordinated, stable, and readily controllable. However, today’s multi-vendor, distributed enterprise environments make systems management a critical challenge.
Basing a client or server platform on systems management standards helps ensure a base level of stable and efficient operation over a set period.
Choosing a Smarter Management Standard
One method of delivering platform capabilities such as manageability is through proprietary implementations — when platforms are designed around a single vendor or on limited, proprietary technologies.
While platforms based on proprietary implementations can be effective solutions, they limit a customer’s choice, their flexibility to respond to business needs, and can carry hidden premiums in terms of ongoing costs.
As computing technologies rapidly evolve, proprietary systems management solutions can even jeopardize security and stability if they cannot keep up with new requirements.
When industry leaders come together as a group to develop standards that are inclusive of multiple vendors, products, and technologies, customers gain the following benefits:
- Flexibility to choose a solution from many interoperable options that best match their specific needs
- Lower systems management complexity which reduces the burden on IT administrators and departments
- Associated total cost-of-ownership savings over proprietary implementations from a single supplier
- Long-term stability and integrated security across all components
Open Standards through Cooperative Collaboration
The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) is the industry organization leading development, adoption, and promotion of interoperable enterprise and systems management standards.
It has more than 4,000 active participants representing 44 countries and nearly 200 entities.
The DMTF’s mission is to drive and enable non-proprietary industry standard interfaces for system manageability, which allow the ecosystem of IT providers to deliver platforms and solutions that reduce overall IT management costs.
As an active member of the DMTF and a member of its Board of Directors, AMD is committed to freedom from the constraints of proprietary architectures.
Our collaborative leadership in the DMTF has resulted in the development of standards that make it easier than ever for customers to manage increasingly diverse IT environments, including standards for desktop and mobile clients (DASH) and for servers (SMASH).
We’ve applied these standards to developing our own future-ready platform solutions for our industry partners and customers.
The DMTF Board of Directors also includes representatives from Broadcom, Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Novell, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, and WBEM Solutions.
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