Can you elaborate on how Certero has evolved its ITAM & SAM solutions to adapt to changing technology landscapes over the past 15 years?

As a technology vendor in the ITAM / SAM space, we’re not just adapting to changes in the landscape as that would be too reactive and slow. We need to think even further ahead, so that as changes hit the market we’re not just ready, we’re already exploring new, better ways to address challenges and bringing those concepts through our development cycle into reality for customers. So our focus early on was to address how we can keep pushing and delivering further ahead, so as to get our concepts to the market quicker. The answer there was to strategically unburden ourselves from the legacy technical debt within our own technology and to bring the unified single platform concept into reality. This isn’t just a platform in marketing terms, it means the entire architecture of our products being rid of legacy technology and all of those forced integrations under the covers. That’s why we don’t acquire and re-brand technology – it’s all 100% developed in-house by Certero. That gives us a technical advantage and means that we can bring new concepts and ideas to the industry much faster and easier, and the performance that unlocks has been a major component of Certero’s success so far.

Could you explain the concept of a ‘single pane of glass’ in IT asset management and how it has contributed to the automation and efficiency of the process?

The single pane of glass is what the industry was crying out for, but for a long time, no one had. This again is all about the single unified platform and it’s the flip side to the technical advantage we sought with having a common architecture that is easy to develop, easier to support, easier to implement etc. The operational benefit of that concept is that all of your ITAM / SAM solutions are powered by that platform and by default, all the data you need are in one place. The answers you need aren’t trapped in data silos in several different tool sets, each telling to various versions of the truth. The way that Certero centralizes that asset intelligence and removes all the old barriers to accessing that information, can absolutely revolutionize the way organizations visualize and understand their infrastructure and all of the disciplines that are built on that information – lifecycle management, SAM, security, financial management and technology value optimization, IT ops and more… the reality now is that you will use that live ‘single source of the truth’ for more purposes than you can imagine when you buy it. And so, we don’t throw any information away. We don’t limit your purposes. Yes, it’s a SAM solution, but it’s also about unifying the understanding of your entire IT infrastructure.

So, that’s the age-old data challenge eradicated, the next stage is obviously using that live information to power automation. That automation means that SAM services can evolve from passively providing information, with deliverables like 3-4 ELP reports per year, to providing 365 ELPs with a live view of your licensing positions. We then dedicate our consultant’s time to applying expertise and guiding customers through the changes that actually deliver value. That’s actively supporting transformation. So that is the net result – what we call ‘Technology-Led Services’, as it is genuinely a game-changing capability in ITAM / SAM that any business can lean on for support.

In what ways has Certero anticipated and addressed the challenges associated with the transition to SaaS and cloud-based solutions in ITAM & SAM?

There are two sides to this – firstly there is our transition to making sure that the Certero Platform is available to customers as a fully featured, fully functional SaaS platform. This was done at the time that we entirely re-developed our solution and created the unified platform. This means that it is genuinely as you’d expect – no missing data, no bizarre ties to other customers in a shared tenant that prevent you from upgrading etc. None of those issues. Delivering Certero as SaaS is now our standard, but we would never force customers to the cloud – that would be wrong. It’s an option if you want it.

Secondly, there’s creating new products to manage SaaS and Cloud. These are clearly very different challenges, with Certero for SaaS being predominately about making sense of complex data that already exists –  seeing and being able to optimize SaaS subscriptions for an ever-increasing list of vendors. This is nice as it’s one of the quickest cost-avoidance ROI’s we can demonstrate in SAM as it’s a cost that’s already there, that we can help to dramatically reduce, often by around 40% or more.

‘Cloud’ on the other hand is much more challenging and isn’t helped by the fact that the market is still evolving. At one time we’d ask 10 different customers how they wanted to manage it and you’d get 10 different answers! So how do you create a solution for that? The answer has been taking some of the wisdom gained from years of on-premises IT cost management, but also balancing that with the appreciation that it is a different commercial challenge for businesses and businesses are now operating differently to address it and embrace the benefits that cloud brings. We have been respectful of the fact that it’s a different market to ITAM and SAM, in that cloud cost management is as much a commercial business process and governance challenge as it is technical. So, we created our sister-brand ‘Vitado’ to manage the cloud, and it is still powered by the Certero platform, so we’re still unifying that information. But, we’re in the process of further evolving that product now to meet the market, which includes aligning it to FinOps language and operating models, now as that has emerged to be the dominant narrative around cloud cost optimization. We’re really close to some significant breakthroughs that again, balance the old wisdom with new innovation.

With the increasing prominence of cloud cost management (FinOps), how do you see the role of ITAM & SAM knowledge continuing to be relevant and valuable?

ITAM isn’t going away and it’s essential that SAM teams acknowledge and adapt to FinOps, otherwise, businesses run the risk of widening the gap between the ‘old world’ and the ‘new world’. We’ve always seen the challenge as providing solutions and services to manage ‘your world’ which now is, of course, a hybrid. But – cloud cost allocations and the extent to which accountability for cloud resources has moved so much closer to business stakeholders, is a different cost management challenge. So our vision is to embrace, learn and add value to FinOps teams. FinOps needs ITAM and SAM and vice versa, or run the risk of losing control on both sides. We’re busy delivering a single platform solution that manages both sides, which will help, as again it’s not just unifying information but unifying understanding, communication and collaboration.  And of course, if you’re managing both well, you can leverage increasing benefits in the interoperability of cloud platforms and software vendors, with things like BYOL.

Can you highlight some of the new skills and experiences that IT professionals need to succeed in managing IT assets and software in a hybrid world, especially with the growth of cloud services?

It’s a ‘managing everything everywhere’ mindset, that SAM teams should already have. However, there needs to be a deep appreciation for how businesses operate financially and how they may need to carve up cloud costs internally. Strong governance processes are needed to keep control and this can still be quite immature, so getting ahead of understating and influencing FinOps processes is logical. Also, as IT has grown in value as a business function, appreciating the business need for agility is also critical. This should be a top-down cultural shift, but where change is needed, ITAM / SAM teams should be in a strong position to influence change, if they’re trained up, sensitive to the business need and ready to embrace the journey.

What are some of the key takeaways or best practices that organizations can learn from Certero’s experience in ITAM & SAM as they navigate the challenges and opportunities associated with the cloud?

Great question. Some things just make sense – unify information as much as possible, and create a ‘single source of the truth’ that teams can access so that everyone is at least working to reliable, detailed and up-to-date information. Avoid data trapped in silos. Appreciate risks and focus on governance policies and procedures and ways to track and measure how well you’re maintaining control so that you can hold yourselves to account. This is largely toolset stuff that can be done out-of-the-box.

Once you have visibility and control, consider that intelligence is needed for strategic procurement of cloud with commitment-based discounts and such, and that a structure is required for identifying, owning and addressing the need for resource optimization. One of the biggest challenges for business is that engineers don’t perform cloud optimization tasks, even when asked. So that is an information, authority and confidence challenge.

So a key takeaway is that – get the information correct so that questions can be asked and answered, judgments made and actions taken.

How does Certero envision the future of ITAM & SAM in the context of cloud computing, and what new challenges and opportunities do you foresee emerging in this space?

We see ITAM & SAM operating in harmony with FinOps and the levels of financial maturity and cost accountability of the cloud, logically spreading backwards to on-premises ITAM & SAM. This is again why our cloud brand Vitado is still part of the Certero Unified Platform so that the information challenges are addressed, perhaps a little ahead of how the market is currently thinking about it.

But as-a-Service models will increase, with ownership being eroded in favour of more predictable financial subscription models for hardware as well as software, Device-as-a-Service. This means increased cost and constant optimization being required to procure strategically and avoid overspending.

IT’s assets are also increasing, with IoT and data assets. So the scope is only getting bigger and more exciting. The discipline of control and value optimization will grow and grow – the key to it all will be transitioning now from reactively supporting the business to getting ahead of the business needs and informing strategy. That’s all about the information and intelligence you can apply now and not after the fact. So get ready, it’s going to get busy!

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