At first, they only served to edit on independent islands or to calculate how much was owed to a given supplier. But now, increasingly, computing and all network equipment is interconnected, live broadcasts are made supported by computers, and the operation of all equipment is vital for business continuity. This is why it is increasingly important to verify that everything works correctly, that the configurations of all the equipment are adequate, that the signal levels are good and that, in the event of a failure, the response is fast and efficient. And for this there are System Management software solutions.
It is a discipline that covers from network administration (verifies that all network hardware and lines work correctly) to desktop management (monitor each of the workstations, to detect failures), through the automatic distribution of a new software version by all workstations or the control of the storage media or video equipment.
A System Management software allows you to monitor the operation of the different equipment that is part of a network infrastructure from a single console (which can be from a dedicated computer to an Internet browser, since most of the products on the market allow remote control), with the aim of preventing failures or quickly solving any problem that arises. This type of product also serves to perform operations on all machines without the need to replicate tasks: backups, software updates or installations of new programs, equipment configurations... all at once and from one place.
Who to turn to
The existing solutions in the System Management market are very numerous. The best known are those of Computer Associates (the Unicenter product line), IBM (Tivoli), Hewlett-Packard (OpenView) and Novell (ZENWorks). These software tools are general purposes and can be used in any business environment, including companies related to the production and editing of images, since they support any type of hardware connected to the network, including islands, audio and video equipment and appliances for editing. Also, as mentioned, they are useful for distributing a new version of any software or automating the backup of large stored volumes.
In addition to the general purposes, there are some specific alternatives for the video and television market. One of the most renowned is iControl Web Builder, by Miranda, a software utility that allows you to create a representation of the facilities of a video company and monitor them from any Internet browser remotely, through an ordinary web connection. It detects both hardware malfunctions and weakness in some of the signals. In addition, it proposes corrective schemes according to the type of error.
However, System Management products are guided by a natural principle for this type of solution: compatibility. It is very rare to find a first-class software of this discipline that does not support some equipment of the main brands.
Handle yourself carefully
The benefits proposed by System Management are countless: hardware outages are reduced to almost the minimum, a large amount of time is saved in software installation and distribution, backup is automated and all associated human errors are avoided (forgetfulness, mistakes) and failures are prevented, among many other things.
However, there is a dark side to this discipline: there are many System Management projects that are not implemented correctly. This is because they require a lot of effort and are usually expensive. Therefore, the implementation must be accompanied by a company expert in this type of solutions, since if the right path is not followed, a very expensive adventure can be undertaken and with more than negative results.
It is not going to be something that by wanting to implement control, it ends up generating chaos.
