According to Gartner, Service Orchestration and Automation Platforms (SOAP) “enable I&O leaders to design and implement business services. These platforms combine workflow orchestration, workload automation and resource provisioning across an organization’s hybrid digital infrastructure.”

The 2024 Gartner^® Magic Quadrant™ for Service Orchestration and Automation Platforms (SOAP) is now available. This is the first Gartner Magic Quadrant for SOAP, and we are pleased to announce that BMC has been named a Leader!

As a recognized industry expert, BMC prioritizes customer experience with a commitment to helping organizations maximize the value of our solutions.

“We are delighted to be recognized as a Leader in the inaugural Gartner Magic Quadrant for Service Orchestration and Automation Platforms report. This, we feel, is a testament to our customer relationships and helping them to achieve their evolving business initiatives over many years,” said Gur Steif, president of digital business automation at BMC. “We are continuing to invest in the future of the market focused on AI, data, and cloud innovations and are excited about our customers, our partners, and the opportunities ahead.”

We believe Control-M from BMC and BMC Helix Control-M simplify the orchestration and automation of highly complex, hybrid and multi-cloud applications and data pipeline workflows. Our platforms make it easy to define, schedule, manage and monitor application and data workflows, ensuring visibility and reliability, and improving SLAs.

In addition, BMC Software was recognized in the 2024 Gartner^® Market Guide^™ for DataOps Tools. As stated in this report, “DataOps tools enable organizations to continually improve data pipeline orchestration, automation, testing and operations to streamline data delivery.”

In the Magic Quadrant for SOAP, Gartner provides detailed evaluations of 13 vendors. BMC is named as a Leader, based on the ability to execute and completeness of vision.

Here’s a look at the quadrant.

Download the full report to:

• See why BMC was recognized as a Leader for SOAP
• Learn about the latest innovations delivered in the category

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Service Orchestration and Automation Platforms, by Hassan Ennaciri, Chris Saunderson, Daniel Betts, Cameron Haight, 11 September 2024

Gartner, Market Guide for DataOps Tools, by Michael Simone, Robert Thanaraj, Sharat Menon, 8 August 2024

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from BMC. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s Research & Advisory organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

The OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Model describes how networked systems communicate. It is a theoretical framework for mapping how applications and devices link and send data over a web of connections.

The OSI Model is called a “reference model” because it is rarely used in practical applications. Instead, it is most helpful in describing network protocols and services. The OSI Model is most often used to understand the theories behind networked communication concepts and elements. Some use it to troubleshoot problems, narrowing a potential issue to a specific layer of the model.

OSI layers are, indeed, fundamental to the OSI Model. The framework is a stack of seven layers, each performing a specific function, yet working together to transmit data from one networked device to another. The 7 layers of OSI model ensure the interoperability of different devices and technologies from various vendors.

The 7 OSI layers

The OSI 7 layer model illustrates how information moves from a sender to a receiver and back again. This image illustrates the 7 layers of OSI model architecture. Below, we’ll briefly describe each layer, from bottom to top.

• The Physical Layer
• The Data Link Layer
• The Network Layer
• The Transport Layer
• The Session Layer
• The Presentation Layer
• The Application Layer

1. Physical

The first OSI model layer describes the physical connections between devices in a network. Electrical, optic, or electromagnetic signal data moves from device to device through the physical infrastructure defined by this layer.

Elements of the OSI layer model’s physical layer include:

• Electrical, mechanical, and physical systems, parts, and devices 
• Specifications such as cable size, signal frequency, voltages, etc.
• How a network is configured, such as a bus, with devices arranged in a line with many stops, a star, with a central device surrounded by an array of devices, a ring with devices in a connected circle, a mesh of woven interconnections, and more
• Communication modes such as one-way simplex, two-way full duplex, or half duplex, with messages going back and forth, but only one direction at a time
• Data transmission performance, such as bit rate, referring to how much data is moving through a connection at a given time, and bit synchronization to align the clocks of each device for accurate data transmission
• Modulation, switching, and interfacing with the physical transmission medium
• Common protocols for connections, including Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and others
• Hardware, including networking devices, antennas, cables, modems, and intermediate devices such as repeaters and hubs

2. The Data Link Layer

The second OSI model layer describes data transmission between network devices. Data is sent in packets within a frame of special bit patterns or codes that indicate the beginning and end of each packet. These packets move through switches that route information through the physical layer from one physical location to another.

The OSI data link layer has two sublayers:

• The Logical Link Control (LLC) sublayer manages flow and error controls to ensure accurate data transmission between the network devices.
• The Media Access Control (MAC) sublayer manages access and permissions for transmitting data between devices.  The function of this sublayer is to manage which device controls a channel, moment to moment.

3. The Network Layer

The third of the OSI layers organizes and transmits data between multiple networks. Network layer hardware includes routes, bridge routers, 3-layer switches, and protocols such as Internet (IPv4) Protocol version 4 and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

This layer routes data via the shortest or fastest physical path, working around traffic controls, congestion, broken links, service priority, and more. It handles addressing logic to distinguish between the source and destination networks. It divides data into packets to send and then reassembles them at their destination.

4. The Transport Layer

This layer deals with sending and delivering of complete and reliable data from one device to another through a network or between networks. Common transport layer protocols include the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) for connection-oriented data transmission and the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) for connectionless data transmission.

Some of the essential functions in this layer include: 

• Error control, flow control, and congestion control are ways to keep track of data packets, check for errors and duplication, and then to resend if there is an error or failure. 
• Service-point addressing ensures that data is delivered to the correct protocol, identified by a port number.
• Packet segmentation and reassembly are processes for dividing data and sending it sequentially, then rechecking it at its destination for integrity and accuracy.

5. The Session Layer

This OSI Model layer concerns itself with managing session links between network devices with a specific beginning and end. The essential functions include establishing a link to start the session, authenticating senders and receivers, authorizing communications between devices and apps, maintaining the session, and terminating the connection, which are the key functions. 

A common session type is when an internet user visits and browses a website for a specific period.

An essential concept in this layer is synchronization, in which checkpoints during the session ensure a coordinated data flow that is free of unplanned breaks or data loss. 

Common OSI session layer protocols include:

• Remote procedure call protocol (RPC)
• Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)
• Session Control Protocol (SCP)
• Session Description Protocol (SDP)

6. The Presentation Layer

Data flows as packets of code, often  encrypted, through networks. Presenting it in a useful format is the focus of the sixth OSI model layer. The presentation layer deals with:

• Data conversion
• Character code translation
• Data compression
• Encryption and decryption

To send text across a network, the characters of the alphabet convert via a character coding system, such as the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) or Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) that is then encrypted and compressed and sent over the network. On the receiving end, the process reverses. Different kinds of data get translated into different format codes.

7. The Application Layer

The top layer of the OSI 7 layer model is the application layer. It is how a user application, such as a website, browser, email, instant messaging, file transfers, or voice-over IP, interfaces with the network. Think of it as the window for accessing the network to send or display data, which can be anything from a picture of your pet cat to a database of statistics to a voice message.  

It facilitates networking requests, determines resource availability, synchronizes communication, and manages application-specific networking requirements. The application layer also identifies constraints at the application level, such as those associated with authentication, privacy, quality of service, networking devices, and data syntax.

Common OSI application layer protocols include:

• File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
• Domain Name System (DNS)

The internet didn’t welcome OSI

The OSI model is not widely used because of its complexity. Every OSI layer has rules and operations, which make implementation time-consuming and inefficient. The simple TCP/IP model offered advantages that the OSI Model could not match. TCP/IP was already widely used when the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) launched the OSI 7 layer model in 1984.

OSI vs. TCP/IP

The OSI vs. TCP/IP debate never really gained traction in the industry. Vendors had already invested significant resources in TCP/IP products in the ten-plus years before the launch of the OSI. They had no incentive to manage the interoperability issues with the vast choices of protocols and specifications offered by the OSI model. Additionally, the creation of the OSI Model was driven by European political and economic interests that didn’t want to be dependent on technologies and equipment developed by American companies. Hence, a non-governmental organization, the International Organization for Standardization, designed the rather ponderous new model by committee.

Advantages of TCP/IP

In the OSI vs. TCP/IP debate, the original technology claimed advantages over the 7 layers of OSI model approach. Since its development in the 1970s, TCP/IP has become the proven standard that is widely used for most internet communication.  Among its advantages are:

• Simplicity: With four simple and easy-to-understand layers, it is straightforward to implement and maintain, unlike the 7 OSI layer model.
• Practicality: Because it was developed by the internet architects, TCP/IP closely aligns with how the Internet is structured.
• Scalability: The client-server architecture makes it easy to adapt and expand.
• Ubiquity: Because it has been widely used for decades, it supports many devices and protocols. Finding well-trained and experienced experts is easy.
• Lightweight: It has a relatively small memory footprint and uses little CPU, generally consuming minimal system resources.
• Inexpensive: Because it is so much easier to implement and talent is readily available, it costs less to use.

The OSI Model and internet of today

The TCP/IP architecture model has a long record of success in real-world network environments. It has served as a solid and versatile foundation for the internet, successfully addressing security, privacy, and performance-related challenges. 

Continued research and development, investments, and industry-wide adoption of the OSI model could have made today’s cyber world a different ( perhaps better) place. Still, the pragmatism of the TCP/IP model has prevailed. Given its wide use and the challenges inherent in the OSI model, the ascendancy of the TCP/IP model is likely to remain for the foreseeable future.

It is my pleasure to announce that Netreo, a BMC company, has earned the distinction of Network Infrastructure Product of the Year in Network Computing’s annual celebration of the industry’s best vendors, innovators, and resellers. Thanks to our customers, partners and industry professionals for your votes. And congratulations to our Netreo team and reseller community for delivering award-winning network performance monitoring and diagnostic (NPMD) solutions to our customers.

While Netreo has received numerous accolades from Network Computing in the past, being recognized as the top product in its flagship award category is a first.

We are excited to bring these great NPMD capabilities into the BMC Helix full observability platform, enabling our customers to manage increasingly complex and hybrid IT systems where network performance is a key component.

The Netreo NPMD solution improves business outcomes and simplifies network performance optimization with comprehensive network observability and automated device onboarding, configuration, issue resolution, and administration. As part of the BMC Helix portfolio, Netreo gives our customers end-to-end network and code-level observability.

Netreo also won Testing/Monitoring Product of the Year for an unprecedented eighth time, and the eighth time in nine years. Out of the other seven categories where Netreo was a finalist, it was the runner up for the Customer Service Award and overall Product of the Year.

The Network Computing Annual Awards recognize the products, people, and programs leading the way in strategic and innovative network management across more than 30 categories. Each year, finalists and category winners are determined through online voting from Network Computing readers, network users, IT consumers, and industry professionals.

Learn more about how Netreo simplifies network monitoring and performance optimization by visiting the Netreo website.

In a landscape where the pace of digital transformation is relentless, and the demand for operational excellence is ever-present, ServiceOps emerges not just as a buzzword, but also as a critical enabler for businesses to thrive in the digital age. Building upon the foundational principles outlined in previous blogs, let’s dig into why ServiceOps, a unified approach to IT service management (ITSM) and IT operations (ITOps), matters and why the time to embrace it is now more urgent than ever.

The urgency of ServiceOps

1. Rapidly evolving business landscape: The digital landscape is evolving at an unprecedented pace, with technological advancements, changing customer expectations, and market disruptions reshaping industries overnight. In this dynamic environment, organizations must adapt quickly to stay competitive, making the need for agile and efficient IT management practices more urgent than ever.
2. Increasing complexity and scale: As organizations scale and diversify their operations, the complexity of managing IT services and operations grows exponentially. Traditional siloed approaches to IT management are no longer sufficient to meet the demands of modern enterprises, necessitating a more integrated and holistic approach like ServiceOps.
3. Growing customer expectations: We are now in an era where the customer experience reigns supreme, so organizations must deliver seamless and reliable services to attract, delight, and retain customers and exceed their expectations. Service disruptions and downtime can have far-reaching consequences, leading to lost revenue, damaged reputation, and customer churn. ServiceOps offers a proactive and collaborative approach to managing IT services, ensuring high availability and reliability to meet customer demands.

Why you should care about ServiceOps

1. Driving business outcomes: ServiceOps is not just about IT—it’s about driving tangible business outcomes. By optimizing processes, automating routine tasks, and fostering collaboration, ServiceOps enables organizations to enhance productivity, improve service quality, and accelerate innovation, ultimately driving sustainable growth and competitive advantage.
2. Enhancing customer satisfaction: In today’s customer-centric world, delivering exceptional customer experiences is paramount. ServiceOps enables organizations to proactively monitor and manage IT services, minimizing downtime and service disruptions to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Staying ahead of the curve: As digital disruption reshapes industries, organizations that adopt ServiceOps gain a strategic advantage over their competitors by taking a proactive and integrated approach to IT management, quickly adapting to changing market dynamics, and capitalizing on emerging opportunities.

The time is now

1. Seizing the competitive advantage: By implementing ServiceOps early and optimizing IT operations, organizations can gain a competitive advantage in their respective markets, enhancing collaboration and driving innovation to differentiate themselves from competitors and position themselves for long-term success.
2. Minimizing risks and downtime: Service disruptions and downtime can have significant financial and reputational implications for organizations. By adopting ServiceOps practices, organizations can minimize the risk of service disruptions, proactively addressing issues before they escalate and ensuring uninterrupted service delivery.
3. Unlocking growth opportunities: ServiceOps enables organizations to optimize their existing operations and foster a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration to drive innovation, develop new products and services, and capitalize on emerging market trends.

Adopting ServiceOps is not just about staying ahead of the curve—it’s about future-proofing your organization for success in an increasingly digital world through operational excellence, enhanced customer satisfaction, and new opportunities for growth and innovation. The time to act is now. Embrace ServiceOps and embark on a journey towards transformative outcomes and sustainable success in the digital age.

Read more about the adoption of ServiceOps and how you can accelerate and maximize the impact of a converged ITSM/ITOps transformation in the latest e-book from Enterprise Strategy Group.

In today’s world, enterprises must adapt swiftly to changing market dynamics while ensuring operational excellence. Among the various methodologies emerging to meet this challenge, ServiceOps stands out as a beacon of transformation, promising to revolutionize how businesses manage their IT services and operations. A recent e-book by the Enterprise Strategy Group digs into the realm of ServiceOps to uncover its impact on enterprise outcomes and shed light on the journey toward maturity.

Understanding ServiceOps

ServiceOps represents a paradigm shift in IT management, blending the realms of IT service management (ITSM) and IT operations (ITOps) into a unified approach. At its core, ServiceOps emphasizes streamlining processes, automating routine tasks, and utilizing data-driven insights to enhance decision-making and service quality. It’s a technological shift, as well as a cultural and operational transformation to drive efficiency and agility across the enterprise.

Early wins and tangible benefits

Enterprises adopting ServiceOps have witnessed many positive outcomes, ranging from improved staff efficiency to faster incident resolutions and heightened user satisfaction. According to recent Enterprise Strategy Group research findings, leading organizations with mature ServiceOps practices reported significant boosts in staff efficiency, with 94 percent attesting to its impact. Moreover, 93 percent experienced accelerated incident resolutions, while 92 percent noted a marked increase in user satisfaction levels.

The significance of maturity

While the benefits of ServiceOps are apparent, the level of adoption maturity plays a pivotal role in maximizing its impact. Enterprises categorized as leaders in ServiceOps maturity were significantly more likely to report substantial improvements across key metrics than their nascent counterparts. This underscores the importance of advancing along the maturity spectrum to unlock the full potential of ServiceOps.

Challenges and opportunities

Despite the widespread recognition of its potential, the adoption rate for ServiceOps remains relatively slow. The transition from siloed ITSM and ITOps to a unified ServiceOps framework presents formidable challenges, including breaking down entrenched silos and integrating disparate systems. However, with these challenges come immense opportunities for innovation and collaboration, paving the way for a more cohesive and efficient operational model.

The road ahead

As enterprises navigate the complexities of their ServiceOps journey, it is essential to focus on practical best practices gleaned from organizations with mature ServiceOps approaches. By creating hybrid roles, fostering cross-team collaboration, implementing robust tools and processes, and adding automation and AI-driven technologies, enterprises can accelerate their progress toward ServiceOps maturity and unlock unprecedented levels of operational excellence.

In the digital transformation era, ServiceOps emerges as a beacon for enterprises seeking to optimize their IT services and operations. Backed by research and real-world insights, the journey toward ServiceOps maturity holds the promise of enhanced productivity, collaboration, and innovation. As enterprises chart their course towards ServiceOps excellence, embracing a holistic approach rooted in best practices and continuous improvement is key to unlocking transformative outcomes and driving sustainable success in the digital age.

Read more in the full report from Enterprise Strategy Group on accelerating and maximizing the impact of ServiceOps.

In the era of rapid digital transformation, where businesses constantly race for operational excellence, a game-changing methodology has emerged—ServiceOps. This innovative approach not only marks a significant shift in IT management, merging the realms of IT service management (ITSM) and IT operations management (ITOM) into a unified framework, but it also brings a host of benefits. So, what exactly is ServiceOps, and why is it becoming a buzzword among forward-thinking organizations?

The essence of ServiceOps

ServiceOps, an abbreviation for service operations, is not just another approach to IT management. It’s a comprehensive strategy that surpasses traditional isolated practices by unifying ITSM and ITOM into a single framework. While ITSM concentrates on managing and delivering IT services in accordance with business requirements, ITOM deals with the day-to-day operational activities needed to maintain IT infrastructure and systems. ServiceOps is more than managing IT services and operations—it’s a comprehensive strategy prioritizing efficiency, collaboration, and innovation.

Key principles of ServiceOps

1. Streamlined processes: ServiceOps isn’t just a theoretical concept. It emphasizes the importance of streamlining processes across the entire service lifecycle, from request to resolution. Organizations can optimize efficiency and reduce operational overhead by standardizing workflows and automating routine tasks, leading to tangible improvements in service delivery.
2. Automation and AI: Automation is a fundamental pillar of ServiceOps, empowering organizations to automate repetitive tasks, such as incident resolution and change management to accelerate service delivery and minimize human error. Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) technologies like machine learning (ML) and predictive analytics equips organizations with the tools to harness data-driven insights, improve decision-making, and optimize service performance.
3. Proactive monitoring and management: ServiceOps ensures high availability and reliability by leveraging real-time monitoring tools and predictive analytics to proactively monitor and manage IT infrastructure and services so organizations can identify and address potential issues before they impact end users, minimizing downtime and service disruptions.
4. Collaboration and communication: Collaboration lies at the heart of ServiceOps, fostering cross-functional teamwork and communication across ITSM and ITOM teams to break down silos, promote knowledge sharing, drive innovation, and deliver superior customer experiences.
5. Continuous improvement: ServiceOps embraces a culture of continuous improvement, where organizations strive to refine processes, adapt to changing market dynamics, and drive innovation. Through regular feedback loops and performance metrics, organizations can identify areas for optimization and drive incremental gains in productivity and efficiency.

The Impact of ServiceOps

The adoption of ServiceOps can have a profound impact on organizational performance and success. By embracing the principles of integration, automation, collaboration, and continuous improvement, organizations can achieve the following:

• Enhanced Productivity: Streamlined processes and automation increase efficiency and productivity across the organization.
• Improved Service Quality: Proactive monitoring and management ensure high service availability and reliability, leading to improved customer satisfaction.
• Accelerated Innovation: Collaboration and communication foster a culture of innovation, driving the development of new products and services.
• Agile Decision-Making: Data-driven insights enable organizations to make informed decisions quickly, adapt to changing market conditions, and capitalize on emerging opportunities.

ServiceOps represents a transformative approach to IT management, offering organizations a blueprint for success in the digital age. By integrating ITSM and ITOM into a unified framework and adopting integration, automation, collaboration, and continuous improvement principles, organizations can drive operational excellence, enhance customer satisfaction, and achieve sustainable growth. As businesses navigate the complexities of the digital landscape, ServiceOps emerges as a guiding light, empowering organizations to thrive in an increasingly competitive market.

To learn more about ServiceOps and how it can revolutionize your business, check out this latest study from the Enterprise Strategy Group and visit our dedicated ServiceOps hub.

Today, more than ever, efficient asset management is crucial for businesses across industries. Tracking and optimizing IT assets, from hardware and software to virtual resources and cloud-based services, can significantly impact operational efficiency, cost optimization, and risk mitigation. However, businesses often face challenges in effectively managing their assets, resulting in increased costs, compliance risks, and operational inefficiencies.

Challenges in asset management

Without a clear understanding of the assets that are being used to deliver a particular service, organizations may struggle to ensure that the service meets customer expectations. Despite recognizing the importance of asset management, many organizations face challenges when tracking and managing assets in their environment:

1. Lack of visibility: Traditional asset management approaches often rely on manual processes, spreadsheets, or disparate tools, leading to limited visibility into the organization’s IT infrastructure. This results in inaccurate or outdated asset data, making it difficult to track assets, understand dependencies, and plan for maintenance or upgrades.
2. Inefficient resource utilization: Organizations often struggle with underutilized or idle assets, which leads to unnecessary costs. Without proper visibility and monitoring, it becomes difficult to identify such assets and optimize resource allocation, resulting in wasted resources and increased operational expenses.
3. License compliance risks: Managing software licenses and ensuring compliance with licensing agreements is complex. Manual license tracking methods can lead to compliance risks, including overuse or non-compliance, resulting in potential penalties or legal consequences.
4. Lack of proactive maintenance: Each of the above challenges presents issues for organizations when they try to proactively manage their IT infrastructure. Without accurate asset data and insights, they cannot identify potential risks, security vulnerabilities, or outdated components, which can lead to increased downtime, security breaches, and business disruptions.

Revolutionizing asset management

This is where BMC Helix Discovery steps in as a game-changer, provides comprehensive—and revolutionary—asset management capabilities to address these challenges:

1. Automated asset discovery and visibility: BMC Helix Discovery automates the discovery and mapping of IT assets across the organization’s infrastructure. It leverages advanced technologies like agentless discovery and pattern-based recognition to capture detailed information about hardware, software, virtual resources, and cloud-based services. This automation provides real-time visibility into the complete asset inventory, enabling accurate tracking, relationship mapping, and dependency understanding.
2. Optimal resource allocation: The solution helps identify idle resources and provides actionable insights for consolidation, retirement, or repurposing. This optimization streamlines resource allocation, reduces operational costs, and maximizes the utilization of IT assets.
3. License compliance management: BMC Helix Discovery simplifies license management by providing a holistic view of software licenses, entitlements, deployments, and usage. It enables organizations to track license compliance, identify unused or underutilized licenses, and ensure adherence to licensing agreements. With accurate license data, organizations can avoid compliance risks, eliminate unnecessary software purchases, and optimize licensing costs.
4. Proactive maintenance and risk mitigation: BMC Helix Discovery empowers organizations to proactively manage their IT infrastructure. By capturing comprehensive asset data, including configurations, patch levels, and vulnerabilities, it enables proactive maintenance and risk mitigation. Organizations can identify potential risks, security vulnerabilities, or end-of-life components. This empowers them to plan for hardware and software upgrades, patches, and replacements proactively, minimizing risks, and reducing unplanned downtime.

Efficient asset management is a critical component of business success in the digital era. BMC Helix Discovery revolutionizes asset management practices and helps organizations overcome their asset management challenges by providing automated asset discovery, comprehensive, real-time visibility, optimal resource allocation, license compliance management, and proactive maintenance capabilities.

These capabilities enable organizations to achieve operational efficiency, optimize costs, enhance decision-making, and improve business continuity, ultimately unlocking the full potential of their IT assets to achieve success in today’s dynamic and technology-driven business landscape.

To learn more about BMC Helix Discovery, visit www.bmc.com/Discovery.

Amid the rapidly evolving financial industry, meeting compliance regulations is a critical business concern. Failure to comply with banking regulations can result in severe fines, civil suits, and personal consequences for executives. In this blog post, we will explore the importance of compliance regulations for financial institutions and how BMC Helix Continuous Optimization can help organizations effectively navigate these challenges.

The significance of compliance regulations

Compliance regulations are designed to maintain the stability and integrity of the financial system, protect customers, and reduce the risk of financial crises. However, different countries have their own banking regulations, and financial institutions worldwide face the challenge of meeting these requirements. Failing to comply with audits and regulations can lead to substantial fines and legal consequences.

To highlight the gravity of non-compliance, let’s consider some real-world examples. In recent years, several banks around the globe faced significant fines, such as one in Malaysia with $700 million, one in Holland with $574 million, and Capital One in the United States with $390 million. These fines have far-reaching implications, affecting both the organizations and the executives responsible.

Specifically for North America, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) provides guidelines for capacity management, including technology planning, capacity assessments, stress testing, business continuity planning, vendor management, and performance monitoring. Meeting these guidelines is crucial for financial institutions to ensure compliance and avoid penalties.

Industry trends and IT decision makers

Financial institutions are experiencing a paradigm shift, recognizing the power of data for making informed business decisions. Organizations aim to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to interpret and analyze data more effectively. According to a recent study by TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group, 90 percent of organizations surveyed are expected to spend as much or more on AI/ML in 2023 as they had in 2022.

The financial industry also demands enhanced visibility into resource usage and the ability to forecast and meet changing business demands. However, many organizations struggle with manual efforts, lack of visibility, and managing complex infrastructures. To address these challenges, organizations require a comprehensive solution that offers holistic visibility, automation capabilities, and the ability to align resources with business services.

BMC Helix Continuous Optimization for financial institutions

BMC Helix Continuous Optimization is a powerful solution that helps financial institutions meet compliance regulations, optimize capacity, and drive operational efficiency. This solution caters to the unique needs of the financial sector, empowering organizations to streamline their capacity management process effectively, while offering additional capabilities such as cloud migration simulations, application capacity management, forecasting, and saturation prediction and planning.

Customers who have implemented the solution have significantly reduced person-hours through automation, achieved cost savings and avoidance, ensured compliance with regulations, and gained a comprehensive view of their infrastructure and applications. They have also prevented capacity-related outages and application slowdowns and bottlenecks, while the AI/ML capabilities have helped them make better data-driven decisions, predict potential issues, and optimize their resources effectively.

Conclusion

Compliance regulations play a crucial role in maintaining the stability and integrity of financial institutions. With the ever-changing landscape of the financial industry, organizations must leverage advanced solutions like BMC Helix Continuous Optimization to navigate these regulations successfully. By adopting this solution, financial institutions can achieve compliance, optimize capacity, mitigate risks, and drive operational efficiency.

The out-of-the-box features, AI-powered analytics, and comprehensive reporting provided by BMC Helix Continuous Optimization make it a valuable asset for financial institutions striving to meet compliance requirements and thrive in today’s dynamic financial landscape.

Financial institutions that have embraced BMC Helix Continuous Optimization have experienced numerous benefits, including cost savings, improved compliance, risk mitigation, and enhanced resource alignment. With BMC’s proven track record in capacity management and continuous innovation, organizations can rely on this solution to navigate the complex challenges of the financial industry.

To learn more about how BMC Helix Continuous Optimization can empower your financial institution to meet compliance regulations and optimize capacity, visit www.bmc.com/optimize and listen to the webinar that I recently did on this important topic.

IT teams cannot manage what they cannot see, and that challenge is made more complex when trying to manage IT assets across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, while also supporting DevOps teams and managing containerized and microservices-based application delivery.

BMC Helix Discovery, an industry-leading SaaS-based, cloud-native discovery and dependency mapping system, can solve these issues by delivering instant visibility across your entire IT estate. A recently released Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact^™ (TEI) study commissioned by BMC found benefits culminating in a return on investment (ROI) of a significant 314 percent.

Before their implementation of BMC Helix Discovery, participants in the study were managing assets with legacy and homegrown solutions and manual processes, which led to security breaches, a lack of visibility, and outdated information, as well as high costs and inefficient processes. By implementing the solution and gaining end-to-end visibility, the composite organization comprised of interviewees with experience using BMC Helix Discovery realized benefits that include:

• Improved IT productivity: By gaining better visibility into the IT asset ecosystem and achieving accurate, real-time data, organizations netted $684,000 worth of increased IT team productivity related to managing assets and infrastructures.
• More efficient IT asset incident resolution and recovery: By leveraging the solution’s better-quality data to identify the root cause of incidents and reduce time spent resolving them, end users avoided downtime worth $ 2.8 million.
• Better IT asset optimization: Improved visibility helped organizations avoid the licensing fees and costs associated with managing unused assets, saving $2.5 million.
• Improved IT asset security: By mitigating risk and improving their overall security posture with better visibility, organizations realized security improvements worth $1.2 million.

In addition to the quantifiable benefits of BMC Helix Discovery, the organizations in the study credited the solution with helping them grow their business alongside managing their complex IT infrastructures. To learn more about how BMC Helix Discovery can help your business increase IT team productivity, remediate and recover IT assets faster, and improve IT asset optimization and security, download the full study here.

And… Consider watching the webinar with BMC experts and guest speaker, Forrester Analyst Will McKeon-White as they discussed how BMC Helix Discovery delivers rapid ROI, automates asset management, and reduces IT burden.

In today’s world, networks are no longer confined to on-premises environments alone; they have evolved into complex hybrid configurations that encompass on-premises, private cloud, public cloud, and edge environments. These network architectures provide increased flexibility, scalability, and agility but they also pose significant challenges, especially when it comes to maintaining comprehensive visibility and control. Without this visibility, it is akin to operating in the dark. A comprehensive, holistic understanding of your IT and network infrastructure isn’t just a luxury—it’s a necessity.

The repercussions of not having this understanding are manifold:

• Security vulnerabilities: Unknown or unmanaged assets can become potential gateways for cyberattacks, leading to substantial security risks.
• Increased business disruption risk: Without clear visibility, diagnosing and addressing issues take longer, resulting in service disruptions that negatively affect the customer experience. In today’s highly competitive business environment, any slip in customer service can lead to lost business and damage to your brand’s reputation.
• Compliance risks: Failing to account for all IT assets can result in non-compliance with regulatory standards, potentially leading to penalties and reputational damage.
• Cost inefficiencies: Lack of visibility can lead to ballooning IT costs, particularly when unused or underused assets go unnoticed.

The solution—BMC Helix Discovery

BMC Helix Discovery is an industry-leading, comprehensive, and agentless discovery technology that offers enterprises a holistic view of their IT infrastructure. One of the solution’s key strengths is its extensive reach: It can discover and map all kinds of applications deployed by enterprises, from legacy mainframes and monolithic applications to the latest cloud-native architectures. No matter where or how the applications are deployed, BMC Helix Discovery ensures complete visibility across your entire IT landscape. With out-of-the-box coverage for tens of thousands of hardware, software, and application entities, it fast tracks the journey to beneficial outcomes for enterprises.

Positive outcomes

Adopting BMC Helix Discovery can revolutionize an organization’s IT landscape, leading to several benefits:

• Improved security and compliance: A comprehensive view of the IT landscape, including unknown or unmanaged assets, allows enterprises to identify and rectify potential vulnerabilities, mitigate security risks, and ensure regulatory compliance.
• Enhanced visibility: Automated discovery provides an accurate, dynamic inventory of IT assets, driving operational efficiencies and ensuring no resource is left unutilized or unprotected.
• Reduced business risk: Enhanced visibility allows for quicker identification and resolution of issues within the IT infrastructure and minimizes the risks posed by prolonged service disruptions, system downtime, and potential security breaches.
• Increased cost efficiency: The discovery and decommissioning of unused or under-utilized assets lead to significant reductions in IT spending.

In conclusion, the benefits of BMC Helix Discovery extend far beyond just overcoming the challenge of visibility, providing businesses with the actionable insights to make informed decisions, reduce risk, improve security, drive growth, and transform their IT operations. To learn more about BMC Helix Discovery, visit bmc.com/Discovery.