10 Best IT Operations Management Tools

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Are you concerned about your organization's decreased operational efficiency? However, you can proactively enhance it by improving and streamlining your organization’s processes. This also leads to increased productivity and cost savings.

To do this, you must analyze and optimize your existing workflow and processes. You must also consider numerous aspects when evaluating and improving your organization’s operations.

Leveraging an IT operations management tool can make this task more manageable and efficient. An efficient tool can identify bottlenecks and areas where tasks are duplicated or delayed. You can then eliminate unnecessary steps, greatly improving efficiency and effectiveness.

To help you choose the right IT operations management tool and save time, we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 tools for managing various aspects of organizational operations.

These IT operations management tools streamline processes and boost efficiency, aiding in informed decisions and long-term success.

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What is the concept of IT operations?

IT operations involve managing and supporting an organization's tools and systems. This includes maintaining computer networks, servers, software, and technology infrastructure to ensure smooth operation.

In simple terms, IT operations keep all systems running smoothly by fixing issues, updating software, and managing data backups.

For example, a company can use a CRM system to track sales and customer interactions. IT operations would include:

• Monitoring: Checking that the CRM system works well, just like making sure building systems run smoothly.
• Updating: Installing updates to keep the CRM system current, like painting a building to keep it fresh.
• Backing Up: Regularly saving data so it can be restored if needed, similar to having a backup key for a building.
• Resolving Issues: Fixing problems quickly when they arise, like repairing leaks in a building.

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What is IT operations management?

IT operations management is a continuous process of managing day-to-day tasks that keep an organization’s IT systems working smoothly. It involves ensuring everything related to technology, such as computers and software, is up and running as it should be.

It also includes handling systems performance. This means ensuring the IT systems can handle the amount of work they’re given without slowing down or crashing. It’s about keeping everything running efficiently.

Another important part is resolving issues. When problems or outages occur, IT operations management focuses on quickly addressing and fixing these issues.

Also, it involves implementing changes. This could include updating software, adding new features, or adjusting settings to improve performance or security.

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What are IT operations management tools, and why do you need them?

IT operations management tools are software solutions that help manage and optimize an organization’s IT infrastructure. These tools help transform an organization’s efficiency and productivity. These tools:

• Track the performance of servers, networks, and applications. They provide real-time data on system health. It also alerts potential issues before they become serious problems.
• Help track, manage, and resolve IT issues or outages. They streamline the reporting and addressing of problems, ensuring quicker issue resolution.
• Measure and analyze IT systems' performance. This helps identify areas for improvement and ensure that systems can handle the required workload.
• Automate repetitive tasks such as software updates, backups, and system configurations. It reduces the need for manual intervention and minimizes human error.
• Manage and document IT system configuration. It ensures all components are set up correctly and consistently.
• Ensure that critical data is regularly backed up and can be quickly restored in case of data loss or system failure.

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Top 8 IT operations management tools

Among the many IT management tools available on the market, the following feature-packed IT operations management tools stand out: CloudEagle, SolarWinds, Freshworks, ServiceNow, Splunk, Prometheus, Squadcast, and Devo.

These tools enhance your organization’s efficiency and effectiveness. Let’s know about these IT operations management tools in detail:

1. CloudEagle

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CloudEagle is a comprehensive SaaS management and procurement platform. It helps you discover, manage, govern, and renew SaaS applications within a single place.

Managing different aspects of your organization’s software operations becomes more efficient when you use the tool. The tool enhances efficiency, helps optimize SaaS costs, and improves ROI.

The tool simplifies and streamlines IT operations. It manages user access to various apps and ensures compliance with licensing rules. It efficiently handles onboarding new employees and revokes access when they leave, automating user setup and removal.

Further, with features like self-service app catalog, employees can easily request and access the apps they need. Additionally, streamlined purchasing processes save time and help secure the best deals.

By automating routine tasks with the tool, your IT team can spend less time on manual work and more on important projects. Its clear and user-friendly interface lets you easily monitor your cloud services’ performance and quickly fix any issues.

Key Features

Complete application discovery: This feature helps you identify and catalog all your organization's SaaS applications. It provides a detailed view of your entire SaaS stack, showing all the applications used, who is using them, and their costs.

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With this comprehensive overview, you can effectively manage and optimize your software resources, ensuring you make the most of your investments and avoid unnecessary costs.

You get a clear overview of your entire SaaS stack and a detailed view of all the apps. This view helps you understand which applications are being used, how they are distributed across the organization, and any potential overlaps or redundancies.

With this detailed view, you can manage your applications more effectively. You can make informed decisions about which apps to keep, which to eliminate, and how to optimize your spending on software.

License management: This tool ensures compliance with software licensing agreements. It keeps track of the number of licenses you have, who is using them, and when they need to be renewed.

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Effective license management prevents issues such as over-purchasing or under-licensing, ensuring you’re not paying for more licenses than necessary.

The tool features license harvesting to help you manage and optimize your software licenses. The tool scans your software usage to find licenses that aren’t being used, such as those assigned to former employees or underutilized licenses.

Once identified, you can revoke these licenses, making them available for reassignment. This prevents you from paying for unused licenses. The reclaimed licenses can then be assigned to current employees or departments that need them, ensuring better utilization.

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Read this inspiring success story to see how Heath Ceramics improved its understanding of SaaS apps and license usage with CloudEagle.

Renewal management: CloudEagle helps you track subscription renewals to avoid missing important deadlines. The tool uses AI to extract relevant information from metadata and creates a renewal calendar.

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This calendar shows all upcoming renewal dates in one place, helping you manage SaaS subscriptions more effectively. The tool tracks these dates and ensures you stay on top of renewals, avoid service interruptions, and manage subscriptions efficiently.

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Contract management: This feature organizes and manages all your SaaS contracts. It tracks important details such as contract terms, renewal dates, and compliance requirements. Thus, making it easier to handle and review your agreements.

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The tool utilizes an AI-powered metadata extraction feature to capture key contract details. This eliminates manual data entry, ensuring your contract information remains accurate and up-to-date. As a result, contract management becomes easier, and the likelihood of errors is significantly reduced.

Automated onboarding and offboarding: When new employees join, you can set up automated workflows to simplify their onboarding. These workflows can assign the right apps and suggest useful SaaS tools based on their roles and departments. The system will also automatically configure their accounts and permissions, ensuring everything is ready for them.

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This includes creating their user profile, assigning the right software and system access, and providing necessary credentials—all without manual input. This process saves time and ensures new hires have the tools they need from day one.

Similarly, when employees leave, the tool automatically removes their access to systems and resources. It deactivates their accounts, revokes permissions, and ensures no sensitive information is accessible to former employees. This helps prevent security risks and ensures only current employees can access company resources.

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Check out this detailed case study to see how Remediant streamlined user provisioning and deprovisioning, saving hundreds of hours managing SaaS apps.

Procurement workflows: The tool streamlines software procurement with efficient workflows, speeding up purchasing decisions and simplifying approval processes. It helps track spending and ensures compliance with company policies. Additionally, it provides price benchmarking data and assisted buying services, ensuring you secure the best deals at competitive market rates.

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Slack Integration: CloudEagle.ai integrates with Slack, allowing employees to submit requests directly through Slack using a Slackbot. This integration speeds up the request process and improves communication, enabling quicker responses and better management of requests.

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Self-service app catalog: The self-service app catalog feature allows employees to independently request and access applications they need.

Once a request is made, administrators review and approve it based on the user’s role. Automated approval workflows ensure that all requests are handled in accordance with company policies.

Access control: CloudEagle.ai enhances how you manage user access across various SaaS applications. It provides detailed visibility into who has access to what, allowing you to adjust permissions effectively.

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This ensures that users have the right level of access based on their roles and responsibilities, avoiding unnecessary or inappropriate access.

Compliance: This feature helps you stay compliant with licensing agreements and regulations by offering insights into how your SaaS applications and licenses are being used.

CloudEagle.ai helps monitor and track usage, reducing non-compliance risk and potential legal or financial penalties.

Access Reviews: CloudEagle.ai automates the review process for user permissions, making it easier to verify if users have the correct access levels. Regular audits help identify and address any issues quickly.

The tool’s reporting features provide clear insights into compliance and security, allowing for effective management and response to potential problems.

Spend management: This feature helps you track and analyze your software costs. By monitoring your spending on software and SaaS applications, you can make informed decisions about budgeting and manage costs more effectively.

Pricing: CloudEagle provides three pricing plans: Starter, Growth, and Enterprise, starting at $2,000 monthly.

2. Solarwinds

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SolarWinds is a powerful IT operations management tool that helps organizations monitor and manage their entire IT infrastructure. It provides real-time visibility into network performance, server health, and application status, allowing IT teams to identify and resolve issues quickly.

Key features

• The tool offers comprehensive network performance monitoring.
• It manages server and application performance efficiently.
• It provides automated alerts and detailed reporting.

Pros

• The tool features a user-friendly interface that simplifies navigation.
• It has extensive monitoring capabilities, making it suitable for complex IT environments.

Cons

• SolarWinds can be relatively expensive, which might concern smaller organizations.
• There is a steep learning curve for new users, which may require additional training.

Pricing

• SolarWinds pricing includes $27.50 per instance for Application Observability, $12.00 per device for Network and Infrastructure, $5.00 per GB for Logs, and $70.00 per instance for Database Observability.

3. Freshworks

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Freshworks is a customer engagement and IT service management tool. It includes solutions for customer support, sales, marketing, and IT service management and offers an integrated platform to manage various business functions. The tool provides user-friendly interfaces and automation features to enhance efficiency and improve customer interactions.

Key features

• The tool provides ticketing and support tools for effective customer service.
• It offers features for managing sales processes and tracking leads.
• It also includes asset management and incident tracking.

Pros

• Integrated platform with various business tools.
• Intuitive user interface that’s easy to navigate.

Cons

• Can become expensive with add-on features.
• Limited customization options for certain tools.

Pricing

• Freshworks offers different tiers: Growth at $9 per user per month, Pro at $39 per user per month, and Enterprise at $59 per user per month.

4. ServiceNow

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ServiceNow is a cloud-based platform that offers ITSM and business process automation. It helps organizations streamline operations by automating workflows, managing incidents, and improving service delivery. The platform integrates various IT functions, providing a centralized system for managing IT services and business processes.

Key features

• The tool tracks and resolves IT issues efficiently.
• It automates and manages changes to IT systems.
• It streamlines business processes with customizable workflows.

Pros

• Different automation capabilities for IT and business processes.
• Scalable platform that grows with organizational needs.

Cons

• High implementation and licensing costs.
• A complex system that may require extensive training.

Pricing

• Contact their team for detailed pricing calculations based on different features.

5. Splunk

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Splunk is a powerful data analysis tool that collects, indexes, and visualizes machine data from IT systems and applications. It provides real-time data analysis and monitoring to help organizations gain insights into their operations. The tool is widely used for security, IT operations, and business intelligence.

Key features

• The tool collects and indexes data from various sources.
• It provides live data analysis and alerts.
• It offers detailed visualizations and reports.

Pros

• Powerful data analysis and visualization capabilities.
• Real-time monitoring and alerting for quick issue resolution.

Cons

• Can be expensive, especially for large datasets.
• Requires significant setup and configuration.

Pricing

• You need to contact their team for detailed pricing calculations based on different features.

6. Prometheus

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Prometheus is an open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit designed for reliability and scalability. It collects metrics from configured targets at specified intervals, stores them in a time-series database, and provides powerful querying capabilities for system monitoring.

Key features

• The tool gathers and stores metrics data over time.
• It provides flexible querying for data analysis.
• It generates alerts based on specified conditions.

Pros

• Highly scalable and efficient for time-series data.
• Strong querying and alerting capabilities.

Cons

• Requires manual setup and configuration.
• Limited built-in visualization tools.

Pricing

• You need to contact their team for detailed pricing based on different features.

7. Squadcast

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Squadcast is an incident management and response platform. The tool helps IT teams handle and resolve incidents effectively. It provides tools for tracking incidents, coordinating responses, and analyzing post-incident data to improve future response strategies.

Key features

• The tool manages and monitors incident resolution processes.
• It facilitates communication and coordination among response teams.
• It provides tools for analyzing and learning from incidents.

Pros

• Streamlined incident management and response capabilities.
• Integrates well with other monitoring tools.

Cons

• Limited features in the basic plan.
• Complex for smaller teams to utilize fully.

Pricing

• Squadcast offers the following pricing: Pro at $9 per user per month, Premium at $16 per user per month, and Enterprise at $21 per user per month.

8. Devo

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Devo is a cloud-based data analytics and log management platform. The tool provides real-time insights into IT operations and security. It helps organizations analyze and visualize large volumes of data to improve decision-making and operational efficiency.

Key features

• The tool offers instant insights into data for quick decision-making.
• It collects and organizes log data from various sources.
• It provides detailed dashboards and reports.

Pros

• High-performance analytics for large datasets.
• Scalable and flexible cloud-based platform.

Cons

• Can be expensive depending on usage.
• It requires some technical expertise to configure and use it effectively.

Pricing

• You need to contact their team for detailed pricing based on specific features.

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Conclusion

When you choose an IT operations management tool, you take a significant step toward improving the efficiency of your IT systems. Each tool discussed in this article offers unique features for different aspects of IT management.

Selecting the right tools can boost IT efficiency, speed up issue resolution, and better support your organization’s goals. However, if you prefer a tool that combines multiple functions into one platform, consider CloudEagle. It simplifies discovering, managing, governing, and renewing SaaS applications.

Schedule a demo with CloudEagle to see how it can enhance your organization’s operational efficiency.

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