SMB’s have always had to respond to external and internal influences at the drop of a hat and rapid advancements in technology only further SMB’s need for agility specifically with technology management. Keeping up with new forms of IT and IT management is indisputably integral to a business’ success.

In the past few years, efficient IT management focused on maintaining network availability. It was important to implement software that allowed for quick and easy identification of outages and false alarms. The problem could usually be rooted out and resolved quickly by replacing downed devices etc. Mean-time-to-repair (MTTR) was typically short.

Today, IT infrastructures have become more complex with the need for multiple applications and optimal performance. Application degradation is common, but the cause of the problem is not always clear. MTTR can be significantly longer, stove-piping the organization as a whole.

A key advantage for SMB’s over other organizations is the ability to rapidly adopt new technology. To avoid widespread panic and discontent over application degradation, outages, network traffic, false alarms, etc. an integrated network management toolkit is needed. If one wants an edge over the competition, seeking the newest and most advanced tools is an obvious route to take.