JumpCloud is extending the reach of its core IT environment management platform to include software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications via the acquisition of Resmo.
Resmo developed a namesake platform that captures telemetry data and other signals to discover usage of SaaS applications that, once identified, can also be scanned for vulnerabilities and automatically remediated. In addition, the platform can be used to manage privileges and track SaaS application costs.
JumpCloud CTO Greg Keller said once this platform is integrated with the core JumpCloud platform, IT service management (ITSM) teams will be able to extend their asset management efforts to include SaaS applications.
Organizations today are more dependent on SaaS applications than ever in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge is that, for the most part, they needed separate tools and platforms to manage those applications. JumpCloud is now responding to demands for integrated platforms that will consolidate IT management tools in a way that, in addition to boosting productivity, will also reduce the total cost of ITSM, noted Keller.
IT teams today are allocating large amounts of budget today to integrate various tools that should be part of a larger platform, he added. In effect, ITSM is moving into a new era that will result in governance and security being more tightly integrated into IT operations, said Keller. That’s especially critical at a time when many IT teams are assuming more responsibility for compliance and security operations (SecOps), he noted.
Aggregating all the data that those tools generate will also provide the foundation needed to effectively apply artificial intelligence (AI) to those processes, Keller added.
It’s not clear to what degree IT organizations are ready to modernize ITSM. Still, as IT environments become more distributed, it’s clear many legacy tools are not up to the challenge simply because they were designed for an earlier era of IT where most end users predominantly worked in an office. The number of applications deployed at the network edge was relatively few. These days, applications are being accessed everywhere from the cloud to mobile devices. IT teams, however, have not increased in size to manage that expanded footprint, so the need to apply more automation to processes has become acute.
Unfortunately, too many IT teams are trying to correlate events using multiple tools that have significantly different user interfaces and workflows. The result is a higher level of fatigue that often results in increased levels of burnout among IT personnel, many of which wind up leaving to take on more fulfilling challenges. That level of turnover is especially problematic because the demand for IT expertise continues to outstrip the available supply.
Hopefully, as more AI advances are made, the level of toil associated with managing and securing IT environments will drop in the months and years ahead. In the meantime, IT teams would be well-advised to make an inventory of all the tools they use today with an eye toward determining which of them is about to become a feature of a larger integrated platform.
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