left out of trendy management systems, and storage is a cipher when it comes to IT automation as well. 数据挖掘研究院
Nonetheless, there is some competition. A range of suppliers, mostly those dubbed systems management software vendors such as BMC, CA, and IBM, have long offered chargeback software that tracks usage of IT resources and matches that to pricing data. Some smaller firms, like Onaro (bought by NetApp for a rumored $120 million early this year), have extended chargeback reporting to storage usage. 数据挖掘研究院
For Apptio, which garnered $7 million in funding from Greylock, Madrona Ventures, Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Ignition Ventures, and Shasta Ventures earlier this year, the challenge will be to live up to its hype. "It’s too soon to be definitive about them – as they’re still evolving the details of the product and launch," states Dennis Drogseth, VP at research house and consultancy Enterprise Management Associates, in an email. "At first look, I would say that it’s a very valuable capability – and that as an overarching concept it’s unique."
数据挖掘研究院
Another analyst claims not to have seen anything like Apptio's evolving offering. "Apptio is focusing on financial issues, not asset management, utilization, or chargeback," says Donna Scott, VP at Gartner. No company so far, she says, has been able to take input from a general ledger and spreadsheets and do simulation or modeling from the input. And that, she says, is the essential value Apptio proposes with its service: "It might be used for chargeback, but the point is to make better business decisions. You can't optimize cost structure with out knowing the costs."
