Top 10 Oxymorons in IT management

These are based on comments from Mike Vizard, Editorial Director, Ziff Davis Enterprises at Symantec Vision 2007. Would certainly love to hear from you about your preferences, and what you feel about these.

1. Systems management — Well, you can’t manage what you don’t know you have!

2. Storage management — Seeing the utilization rates of 10-15 percent today would suggest that there is very little management of storage going on today!

3. Security management — We have lots of cops for security and IT, but it seems there are no headquarters for them to report to!

4. Network management — Sending packets is like launching a fleet of trucks, hoping that they will reach somewhere, in some shape!

5. Applications management — Does anyone really know how many applications an organization use?

6. License management — Does anyone really know which users in an organization are authorized to use?

7. Business process management — You cannot manage what you can’t see, or for that matter, understand.

8. Asset management — How much stuff do you own that’s not listed in the database?

9. DRM — You have no rights as people will still use your content, regardless of what
you have to say about it.

10. Data management — The last one we have is, at a minimum, 10 copies of everything ever produced, suggests that data is managing us, rather than the other way around.

So, what needs to be done? The industry needs to move toward a more holistic approach to the management of enterprise computing that will no longer make ‘IT management’ the biggest oxymoron of all. What do you think?