Radically-Simplified Systems Management for SMEs

The high-level objective of the SME4SME project is to empower small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by allowing them to productively perform IT-system management activities that they choose to perform in-house while introducing an effective channel for partners and service providers’ support.

As information and communication technologies (ICTs) become pervasive, and critical to enterprise performance. Their reliability and thus management turns into business critical task. The interconnectivity and complexity of the ICT systems increase at an alarming rate the resources involved in managing them. System management becomes a challenging area that needs high-level of expertise. Specifically, management tasks that should be carried out in-house require experienced and highly skilled system administrators that are, in most cases, beyond the reach of an SME.

Our approach will let SMEs with basic ICT skills perform process driven, high quality system management tasks that they should perform in-house. It will also allow easy integration of management services and a convenient way for partners to leverage the management activities performed by their SME customers.

The prime deliverable of SME4SME will be an open-source and standards based system management environment that will communicate system management activities in business terms and will drive system management from business goals. Being able to understand their management activities, SMEs will be able to properly perform the required management tasks at a satisfactory quality and with confidence that the right things are performed properly.
SME4SME will be an open environment: it will allow various management tools and services to be used as the execution engines working under the cover to carry out the required management tasks.

Systems Management

SLA-related technologies
Mapping business rules to IT rules
Systems Management

PROFILE 1
Develop a case study to test the framework, contribute to the project requirements definition.

PROFILE 2
Provide Systems Management technology to plug into the framework

Companies, preferably SMEs, providing Financial Services, i.e. insurance agencies, small banks.

Companies, preferably SMEs, providing Professional Services, i.e. medical offices, law office.

Companies which provide services in the Systems Management area

Chambers of Commerce, Small Business Bureau.

No