Day one at CMG and I visited the TeamQuest User Group to hear several presentations. The first one was titled “A Pragmatic Look at Cloud Computing, Capacity Management, and TeamQuest Solutions” by the TeamQuest Director of Product Management Scott Adams.

After going through a brief description of cloud computing and its benefits, Adams spent time discussing TeamQuest’s Capacity Management Information System (CMIS) and the company’s data analysis and automation plans.

TeamQuest provides a CMIS which provides the historical data needed to make informed decisions on new services and major service enhancements. In addition, high level modeling of different scenarios helps leaders understand the potential impacts of new and changed services on the IT infrastructure. For more information, read “Release 10 and ITIL Version 3” on the TeamQuest website.

Adams’ presentation focused more on the relevancy of capacity management and the fact that the cloud is more about delivering services than it is a technology.

As product manager, Adams explained that TeamQuest will focus on:
• Adapting to new technology
• Scaling to the large enterprise
• Automation, real-time analysis

Questions dealt with the ability to service cloud service providers and/or cloud users. How does TeamQuest software interface with the CMDB? Here’s an article on the CMDB.

I’m headed to an event later tonight, but plan to make two more posts before tomorrow morning.

BTW, TeamQuest announced a software release in October 2009. Adams covered many of its benefits and future enhancements in today’s discussion. What do you need in capacity planning software for your IT and business needs?

Many organizations have saved both time and money by converting underutilized physical servers into virtual machines and consolidating those machines onto fewer physical servers. IT folks are understandably proud of what they’ve done at that point. But if you stop there, you might be leaving money on the table. There can be plenty of additional savings to be had by consolidating virtual machines, hosting multiple applications on some of your virtual machine instances.

How can that save me money?

I recently spoke with Ron Potter, TeamQuest’s Manager of Best Practices. Ron says there are two common avenues organizations can follow to exploit virtualization. The first is one primarily motivated by cost and environmental savings. The second is one of dynamic routing of transactions and images to provide massively scalable operating environments. If your motivator is primarily cost savings and you aren’t pursuing the massively scalable environments using tools such as VMware DRS, then Ron is a proponent for consolidating virtual machine instances, i.e. running more than one app per virtual machine.

Virtual machines need administrators too. Whatever your virtual machine-to-sys admin ratio is, eliminating some of those machines will save you some admin time. That’s time that would otherwise be spent monitoring, maintaining, securing, backing up, and tuning all of those virtual machines. The fewer machine instances you have to manage, whether they are virtual or physical, the less admin time and effort will be required.

Reducing the number of virtual machine instances usually reduces operating system overhead, which will in turn cut demand for physical hardware requirements. Reducing hardware infrastructure will help trim space, power and cooling requirements too.

Ron says not to forget about software license costs. Depending on the OS you are running, you’ll have to pay for each instance, not to mention the inevitable middleware and management software that is required for each virtual machine instance. Depending on the terms of your application software license agreements, there can be big savings there as well. Generally speaking, running software on fewer operating system images will simplify and reduce license costs.

What should I watch out for?

If you have the performance tools necessary to properly plan and monitor your virtualized environment, there’s no technical reason you can’t begin a wave of virtual consolidation after your initial P2V wave of consolidation. You might, however, run into some politics. Your virtualization vendor has likely sold folks on the idea that there should be just one app per virtual machine. You’ll need a plan that can convince everyone that running more than one will still perform while saving money.

You might also see resistance from business units unwilling to share a virtual machine instance with apps from other business units. That issue is probably best settled by working with management. You might need some new chargeback functionality to keep everyone happy.

How do I make it happen?

Create a plan with goals and metrics for success, such as the number of servers decommissioned, software license reductions, or overall cost savings. Make note of service level requirements coming from the customers, departments or business units you are serving.

• Survey your virtualized environment. Take inventory of your virtual machines and the apps running on them. Measure how they are performing now.
• Select candidates for consolidation. Ron has a long list of things to watch for, but suffice it to say you want to look for apps you feel will be complementary rather than competitive when asked to coexist on the same virtual machine instance.
• Run an analytic model to predict how the consolidated environment will actually perform. Will service levels be met? If not, try different configurations or different combinations of apps. The key to fast work here is a fast tool for making accurate predictions.
• Actually commission the consolidation work to take place.
• Monitor the results. Report your success to management!

Get Real

Basically our best practices manager is saying that a lot of the same techniques you used to consolidate physical-to-virtual will work virtual-to-virtual. And you’ll get similar results: savings in hardware, software, space, power, cooling, and system administration requirements.

Ron’s ideas sound like common sense to me, and yet they run contrary to the advice that you may have heard from other vendors. I think it’s because Ron is seeing it more from the point of view of a business manager rather than as a vendor of virtualization technology.

For more detail, be sure to check out Ron’s white paper on this subject, and by all means, add your comments and observations to this blog entry.

Yes, I admit it. At one time in my career I was an adrenaline junkie. As a mainframe systems programmer, I lived for those 2 a.m. calls to rush back into work to fix a production problem. In those days if it wasn’t nightly batch issues, it was getting the online system back up quickly after it crashed in the middle of the day. The operating environment was complex and the mental stimulus was highly satisfying. Being the hero got us a lot of recognition. And we all enjoy being heroes of the moment, especially in IT where being a hero boosted your compensation. Life was good.

Then I tried management on for size. I had direct contact with the business unit leaders. What an eye-opener!  Although they appreciated and generously compensated us for all our heroic efforts to keep things running, they were also asking questions about why all these service interruptions and late report deliveries couldn’t be prevented. The business people analyzed and fixed problems proactively on the business side so why couldn’t IT do the same. Some even suggested that we should be wearing colorful wigs, make-up, shiny red noses, polka-dotted suits and floppy shoes. It was then I realized that although we were getting gratification by attacking and solving complex problems, the value of our reactive culture to the business was low.

The company I worked for at the time embarked on an ITIL journey. I was privileged to be part of the planning and implementation phases (feeling “privileged” now, not at that time). Capacity Management was the first process to be implemented. Boy, what a difference!  Within a year or so, many of our production problems had been mitigated. We had time on our hands. We were invited to participate with Enterprise Architecture teams. We found a whole new world out there. We were looking at new technologies and figuring out if and how they could benefit the business, taking it to new heights. It was more interesting work than scurrying around trying to fix problems. Now when I look back, I wonder how I got so caught up in the reactive thing when there are so many more meaningful things I could do to support my business.

Perhaps it’s time for you to turn in your “adrenaline junkie” hat for a “technology planner” hat.

Until the next time…

Ron

ITIL Version 3 is a quantum leap for the best practice framework. It looks at IT as a business process, requiring substantial business input. ITIL V3 is about the best practices needed to run the business of IT. Many find this concept daunting. The good news is that many of the ITIL Version 2 processes still exist in V3, just structured into a business process approach instead of a technology approach. Those familiar with TeamQuest ITSO processes and best practices will have an easier time with the difference as ITSO has been promoting this type of change since 2005 – more than 2 years before ITIL V3.

So what is the value in doing the work, especially if you have already implemented ITIL V2?  First, let me say that ITIL V3 is not for everyone. Many organizations’ culture is counter to ITIL V3 principles so failure would be fairly certain.

For example, cultures where business and IT are housed in separate ivory towers aren’t ideal candidates for success. You know what I’m talking about. The blame game begins at the castle bastions, where accusations are hurled like arrows. This is an extreme example, but I wanted to get my point across that without discussion and collaboration, moving to ITIL V3 will most likely fail.

For those with a viable culture, ITIL V3 will improve the lines of communication. IT will be operated like a business and report results like a business. This will result in IT being accepted as an equal. IT expenditures will be viewed as investments rather than expenses. Those who have already successfully implemented ITIL V3 report huge successes in using IT services to improve business performance and excellent working relationships with business units.

Since many have said that reading the new books is a prescription for insomnia, I have recently written a white paper that gives the reader a high level view. It also explains how TeamQuest solutions continue to facilitate some of the ITIL V3 best practices. Download it now. There is no charge to do so and you need not register to download.

Please let me know of any changes to improve the content. I look forward to your comments.

Until the next time…

Best Regards

Ron

I recently had an article published on SearchNetworking.com regarding the translation of network usage into costs. This article explains how one of the ITSO (IT Service Optimization) best practices can be extended beyond the server space.   

The process is the same whether addressing server, network, print or other IT infrastructure service. This ITSO best practice covers identifying the components of an application, IT service or business process; collecting the usage data from the individual components; aggregating the usage into workloads or ITRs (IT Resources); allocating fixed, variable and overhead costs equitably and then reporting the results to senior IT and Business management. 

IT infrastructure usage is communicated in business terms at the end of this process so the organization better understands the value of IT.  

Experience shows that ITSO best practices can be extended across the organization. All it takes is a good understanding of ITSO and a little creativity. What have you done with ITSO? I would like to hear about it.

Until the next time…

Ron

This survey was taken at the 2009 TeamQuest Technology Summit, April 28-29. We asked attendees to choose their highest priority for 2009. And the winner… Overwhelmingly, it’s virtualization. Is that a surprise? Well, no, but I have two questions. Why is cloud computing so low with a paltry 7 percent and when will processes such as ITIL finally get their comeuppance?

Virtualization - 68%
Virtualization has been the teacher’s pet for the last couple of years. The news articles, analysts and businesses continue to sing its praises. We’ve branched out though. Instead of focusing on server virtualization, we’ve moved to desktop and application virtualization. What’s next? How else are you exploiting virtualization capabilities? Will virtualization continue to be the class favorite?

ITIL - 14% 
Ahhh yes. The processes that work well for IT, but have yet to translate to or get buy-in from the business side. ITIL is a tricky one for me. I see its value. ITIL isn’t easy. ITIL can demand a cultural shift and buy-in from IT staff. ITIL has several processes with just as many starting points. What are you to do?

With the mantra “do more with less” being trumpeted about companies and IT staff, one would think more businesses would welcome some sort of process to improve the delivery of services. Those of you who have had success incorporating an ITIL process or two should share your secrets with other readers. How do you get buy in from the business side?

Green IT - 11%
It’s good to see Green computing working its way up as a priority, but there’s more we in IT can do. I’m talking more than server consolidation. Ron Potter has a few ideas for data center and systems management professionals.

Cloud Computing - 7%
Cloud computing has captured the interest of the IT world in much the same way as virtual servers. It’s a great conversation piece, but its priority seems to be pretty low. Why is that? Is it due to security reasons? Are organizations concerned with someone else being in control?

Craig

In a poll of IT professionals at the TeamQuest Technology Summit, 85 percent said they were either reactive or more inclined to be reactive in their IT environment.

Maybe it’s the nature of the beast. IT is under demand to produce “more with less” and deliver always-on services. Marketing has a great idea and wants to run a campaign. Are we sitting at the table when marketing pitches a resource-taxing promotion on the company’s infrastructure? Do we allow ourselves enough time to test? Are we given enough time to plan for the campaign?

Some say you can’t sell prevention. But you can sell success. By proving that IT must be part of the strategic leadership on revenue-generating items, the company should have fewer hiccups, decreased headaches and more opportunities to capture revenue.

We’re all after the same thing – success for the company and happy customers. IT, by being ready (i.e., proactive), can help improve a company’s chances by using proper processes to improve revenue-generating and customer-facing opportunities.

For those of you who have had success at being proactive, how do you do it? What needs to happen to move toward being more proactive? Is it better software, processes, or people? Is it a combination?

We want to hear from you.

Craig

Steve Henning briefed the TTS audience on the partnership between his company Integrien Corp and TeamQuest. Integrien offers advanced analytics as a solution to over-alerting by monitoring software. Typically, firms receive hundreds of alerts. One example he gave was of a company which received hundreds every hour. In such a climate, alerts eventually get completely ignored.

Integrien proved its value at one large customer by conducting an analysis of historical data and then laying out what its system would have advised concerning the IT emergency that had been experienced in that period. During that emergency, hundreds of alerts from its existing monitoring system had failed to zero in on the real issues. With Integrien, a handful of alerts highlighted the exact problems and would have warned IT up to three hours in advance of the actual crash.

Integrien has chosen to tightly integrate its software with TeamQuest in order to offer the best of capacity planning alongside intelligent and predictive alerts. Integrien is in the midst of rolling out its solution along with TeamQuest in a large financial institution.  Craig

At the TeamQuest Technology Summit, John Miecielica of Metavante gave an informative talk on how to combine performance management and capacity planning with monitoring. He explained how much easier it used to be to do performance testing when you only had one server attached to its own storage with a defined set of users. Nowadays with virtualization, it’s a lot tougher as multiple users and apps are sharing a common infrastructure.

He gave an interesting example of an application that was suddenly exhibiting performance issues, yet had no change in traffic patterns and was running the same workloads. The application and infrastructure staff insisted no changes had been made. Performance monitoring indicated a change in IO and how it was serviced, yet the SAN team said there had been no microcode changes, new apps or major changes in storage subsystem. The issue had been caused by another team that had loaded an application on a shared server.

They had been very happy with the success of their implementation and had no idea of the consequences.

Yet a heavily virtualized envirnment makes such events inevitable. It takes tools like TeamQuest to provide enough visibility to detect and prevent similar occurrences.

Craig

The afternoon sessions at TTS were very informative.  Rey Rios gave a great session on ITSO and ITIL.  He discussed the differences, and similarities, between ITIL V2, V3 and ITSO.  Then he explained how TeamQuest products supported the frameworks and best practices.

Mark Manness and Scott Johnson followed Rey.  They discussed the upcoming changes to the VMWare agent and TeamQuest Model as it relates to modeling VMWare platforms and guests.  It was very informative and all are awaiting the releases.

Leonid Grinshpan of Oracle discussed multi-tiered application sizing.  It was great presentation.  Not only did he give us insight into modeling Oracle, he discussed step-by-step processes on how to build prototyping models without and system data, how to validate them and apply what-if scenarios.  I thought he did a great job of showing us how we can prototype new applications before they are built.

TTS seems to get better every year and this year is no exception.

Until the next time…

Ron