According to Forrester Research, three directions will influence IT management software market: 1) the evolution of IT infrastructure and application technologies; 2) the economic factors; and 3) the evolution of IT management technology. Application performance management is gaining more importance because of 1) the widespread use J2EE application servers; 2) the proliferation of distributed and powerful servers; and 3) business service management (BSM) approach for IT management optimization.

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), a set of concepts of managing IT infrastructure, development and operations, will be one of the buzzwords in 2008. Enterprises consider ITIL compliance as a way to reach efficient operations. Although, as Forrester predicts, there is still a deep disconnect between ITIL and BSM.

IT expenditures are expected to have 8% growth in 2008. Enterprises that will continue investments in 2008 are those who 1) are motivated by cutting the IT operations cost and/or 2) consider quality of service as a competitive advantage.  Enterprises using IT management at the tactical level will have mixed feelings, although a major trend is toward moving IT management tools to the strategic category.  

The highest growth expected in the end user experience management category (72%), followed by change and configuration management (37%) and SLM/BSM (36%).