Systems management is the management of all IT systems across the entire enterprise, and is directed by the chief information officer (CIO) and/or the chief technology officer (CTO). Systems management includes responsibility for determining what hardware and software is needed to support the organization, purchasing all of it, and making sure it is installed properly, training the users, establishing problem-handling processes, monitoring IT systems performance, and measuring against objectives. It also includes the responsibility for all maintenance, service, consistent upgrades, replacements, and ensuring all products meet the security levels required by the organization.
Systems management includes the design and operations of all data centers that are owned and controlled by the organization, as well as the integration of any cloud services that have been engaged.
There are several common subsystems associated with IT systems management, including: application lifecycle management, asset lifecycle management, capacity planning, change management, cloud lifecycle management, cost management, help desk management, IT service management, data center infrastructure management, security information and event management (SIEM), server management, storage management, and more. A number of different tools are available that help with different aspects of systems management. For example, SUSE Manager is an open source infrastructure management solution that automates Linux server and IoT device provisioning, patching and configuration, and is used for faster server deployments.