I’m sure many of you are gearing up for your travels to Louisville for itSMF USA Fusion 10. Get ready to plug in and rock the house! We all know everything changes, and with the flood disaster that changed the venue from Nashville, it seems that Fusion 10 will be the perfect setting to dig into all of the new and exciting changes in the wonderful world of ITSM.

As you are heading to the great state of Kentucky, I thought we could give you a little reading material for the trip. TeamQuest is inviting you to see how you can Join the Journey to capacity management maturity. Lower costs, improve service quality and increase IT productivity by moving to more mature Capacity Management tools and processes.

What level is your organization? Chaotic, Reactive, Proactive, Service, or Value? Let us know:

Most businesses today are in Reactive or Proactive stages. To take the next step and reach the Service stage, homogeneous monitoring across heterogeneous platforms and technologies in combination with predictive modeling becomes crucial. This also prepares you for the ultimate level, the Value stage.

For more information, we invite you to visit teamquest.com or you will have the opportunity at itSMF Fusion 10 to talk one-on-one with a TeamQuest capacity management professional by stopping by booth 1921.

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, we’ll be tweeting updates throughout the event.

We look forward to talking with you!

One of the more common complaints I hear is the issue of conflicting reports. Two different people using different tools to report against data from the same time period arrive at different answers. The situation drives senior management crazy and makes them question the credibility of both parties.

The problem? The people probably use different reporting tools against independently collected data, probably with different collection parameters. Some data may be averaged over the entire collection period where others may be an accumulation of 30-second data points within that same collection period. One may be using a statistical analysis program, the other a spreadsheet.

The solution? Perhaps a Capacity Management Information System (CMIS) is the answer. It is a database or databases containing all capacity management information, including service level and business statistics. All data in the CMIS is synchronized so collection parameters and periods are consistent across the enterprise. The CMIS also has a reporting element to ensure that two different people reporting on the same data with the same parameters will arrive at the same results every time.

Want more information? Watch this blog for the announcement of my upcoming white paper on the subject.

Until the next post

Ron

We recently had the opportunity to listen to Charles Babcock, editor-at-large of InformationWeek, speak about the much discussed topic of cloud computing at the TeamQuest Technology Summit. Babcock reinforced a couple of themes that we have been saying all along during the advent of cloud computing.

Cloud computing is not a revolution, but as Mr. Babcock terms it, a “convergence” of several technologies used together in a unique way. When it comes right down to it, a cloud environment still consists of traditional compute fabric we all have grown accustom to in the past several years with virtualization in the forefront. The main twist to the technology of cloud computing is the method of delivery to the end user.

Listen to the Clip: Cloud Computing Evolution vs. Revolution

We need to avoid “compulsive over-provisioning,”  which is something that we have seen in a majority of IT organizations in early stages of Capacity Management Maturity. Joining the journey to becoming a mature IT organization takes time and effort and a key component is understanding the current state of capacity coupled with forecasted capacity requirements. Having strong capacity management processes in place allow you to focus on bringing value to the business versus reacting to performance problems and incidents that arise due to capacity issues.

Listen to the Clip: Compulsive Over-prosivisioning

I like the idea of using the cloud to dodge problems with over-provisioning. I should point out though, that contrary to popular belief, tapping cloud computing still requires careful performance and capacity management. To achieve IT Service Optimization using the cloud, you need to analyze the financial aspects as well as performance, capacity, and risk when determining how, how much, and when to use cloud services. Keep in mind, the cloud is more complicated than any one of the technologies that converge to comprise it. As you prepare for it, you’ll want to tap the right performance and capacity tools to ensure that cloud projects successfully deliver business value.

If you are interested in learning more from Mr. Babcock regarding cloud computing, check out his book, Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution. You might also be interested in this white paper from TeamQuest: Capacity Management Ensures Success for Enterprise Cloud Consumers.

Engineer Mark Manness’ breakout session focused on understanding that performance instrumentation at all levels (e.g., application, guest OS, virtual machine, host) is necessary for successful capacity management on VMware. The three main takeaways from his presentation:

• Monitoring inside the Guest OS is an important piece of the performance puzzle
• What some of the Host and Virtual Machine metrics mean and how they can be used.
• Appreciate the numerous modeling options available on the VMware platform.
  • Physical to Virtual planning
  • Proper configuration of virtual machines
  • Using data from smaller benchmarks to size larger workloads.

Thanks for the post Mark.

TeamQuest engineer Scott Johnson wanted the audience to walk away with the following main points from his presentation:

• While measuring application response time can be a challenge, there are some reasonable options for passive data collection.
• A fortuitous side effect of some response time monitoring agents is additional data that can be used for application trouble shooting and business intelligence.
• Application measurements can be used to enhance capacity models.

Johnson also noted that transaction rate and response time information are very valuable for monitoring service level agreements. In the world of Unix, Linux, and Windows, there is no standard transaction monitor for applications. For those that grew up in the mainframe world with proprietary transaction monitors, this situation is a bit unsettling. However, several approaches have been developed to address certain classes of applications.One approach for web-based applications is to use synthetic transactions and response time “robots” to initiate and measure these transactions. This approach is called active measurement since it initiates a small artificial load on the application in order to obtain measurement data. This approach provides reasonable indicators of application availability and network latency.Another approach is to instrument the application and then make the response time information available, perhaps through an application log file. Also, the technology used in web applications provides the possibility for web server log file analysis and TCP packet sniffing. These last approaches are usually called passive monitoring since they add no transaction load to the application. The advantage of passive monitoring is the potential to understand the actual rate of application activity and the actual user experience.Thanks to Scott for this post.

The guy pictured above was a part of the entertainment at the North American TTS 2010, where this year’s theme was “Optimize Your IT Zoo.” The San Diego Zoo is famous throughout the world, so in addition to the technical content, there were a number of visitors present who work at the zoo, including the beautiful bird shown here.

In some cases the technical content of the show was blended together with the zoo-based theme. In fact, one of my favorite presentations at this year’s event was a talk by the zoo’s Chief Technical Officer, Robert Erhardt. Here are a few tidbits from my notes:

• Google Street View works inside the San Diego Zoo. Check it out!
• The zoo attaches tiny fraction-of-a-gram RFID devices with little whisker-like antennas to rare mice in order to track them.
• Condors have radios that send data via satellites. The trick needed to make the radios practical was to design antennae that did not interfere with the birds’ ability to fold their wings.
• In California, organizations can qualify for big rebates by implementing power-saving virtualization solutions. They measure your power consumption before and after virtualization and your rebate is calculated based on the reduction in power usage.

I thought Erhardt’s talk was both entertaining and informative. It was good fun that I think exemplifies this year’s summit. If you didn’t make it this year, don’t miss next year’s event which is sure to be even better. At next year’s summit we will celebrate TeamQuest’s 20th year of existence!

When I read the eWeek article entitled, “How to Manage Capacity in Virtualized Environments” I finished wanting more. Actually, I finished realizing TeamQuest already has more to offer.

Explaining the ITIL definition of Capacity Management is great, but how about expanding a bit further and drilling down into the details - from a Capacity Management perspective. Since the author, Rob Smoot, is a Group Product Marketing Manager at VMware, let’s focus on VMware.

TeamQuest offers scalable, agentless performance data collection for both VMware ESX and ESXi hypervisors and:

• vSphere 4
• AIX PowerVM, including LPARs and WPARs
• Solaris Containers, Zones, and LDOMs.

TeamQuest Model, one tool in our suite, can predict performance in advance, help to optimize services and avoid costly bottlenecks altogether. We can find the least-expensive, best-performing configurations for P2V consolidation, ensuring that service levels will be met. IT managers can quickly determine the best way to allocate resources to VMware guests. And unlike other tools, TeamQuest Model understands response times inside virtual machines.

Take a look at a previous blog post entitled, “It’s CRAZY to Run Just One App Per Virtual Server.” Ron Potter, TeamQuest’s Manager of Best Practices outlines the benefits of running multiple applications on a virtual machine and the planning needed to ensure you have the right configuration for the right situation. In fact, Potter takes this a step further in his white paper, “Grab More Post-virtualization Savings.”

Also, check out the press release on TeamQuest’s VMware capabilities, or our website on managing a virtual environment, or for some real nitty gritty details, see our white paper entitled, “Managing a Virtual Computing Environment - How TeamQuest Supports VMware’s Virtual Machines.”

Remember virtualization is not a cure-all. Capacity Management improves your virtualization tools. It’s a discipline that, when used with the right tools, allows you to get the most from your virtualization efforts.

If you would like to further the discussion on how to truly manage capacity in virtualized environments, don’t hesitate to contact us directly or leave a comment below. We look forward to hearing from you!

Many organizations operate IT in firefighting mode, reacting to performance incidents when they occur. It is surprisingly less often that organizations perform capacity planning up front, though that would ensure that systems will provide necessary service levels without interruption. Being reactive is more expensive, but nonetheless, more common than being proactive. Maybe it’s human nature. It seems that few organizations possess the maturity to see the value of formally addressing capacity issues in an organized manner.

Maybe that’s changing.

A recent Network World article, “10 best IT jobs right now,” predicts that “Capacity Manager” will be an up and coming job title in 2010. In the article Denise Dubie suggests that tough economic conditions combined with added complexity from virtualization should help influence companies to pay more attention to capacity planning. Evelyn Hubbert of Forrester and Cameron Haight of Gartner are both quoted as emphasizing the strategic importance of capacity management for organizations seeking to maximize the value provided to a business by its IT organization.

At TeamQuest we’ve got tools for both proactive and reactive performance management, but we always try to influence customers to take a more proactive, service point of view. We suggest that the organizations with the highest level of capacity management maturity analyze IT capacity in terms of the business value that it can bring to an organization. (See the recent post here on the TeamQuest Capacity Management Maturity Model).

Demands for more services are increasing and high performance and reliability are expected, yet budgets, labor and floor space are all being constrained. I guess nobody said running a data center was easy.

The need for increased efficiency and reliability points to capacity management processes. And like anything else, you have to crawl before you walk, but the value of capacity management practices is there. So what’s it take to adopt more mature processes?

TeamQuest has released our Capacity Management Maturity Model that identifies different levels of IT management competency.

 

Following the lead of Gartner’s IT Management Process Maturity Model, we’ve drilled down even further to highlight the levels of Capacity Management maturity specifically.

After all, moving to mature Capacity Management tools and processes lowers costs, improves service quality and increases IT productivity since staff can focus on the most important duties rather than fight fires.

Take a look at our latest white paper entitled, Introducing a Capacity Management Maturity Model. Let us know what you think! Post your comments below.

Ten years ago it was all about data collection and working to get good performance from infrastructure components. Toward the end of the last decade the emphasis changed for the better, with IT management tools providing more of a service point of view rather than looking at things from a strictly technical infrastructure point of view.

So what’s next? Jeane-Pierre Garbani at Forrester Research recently wrote about “The Next Decade,” summarizing the progress we are making in the IT management software industry.

Business management looks at IT from a value perspective. They want to know, what business benefits am I getting for my IT dollar? Is my IT organization providing me with the ideal value-to-cost ratio? IT organizations are going to have to focus more on that value-to-cost ratio, says Garbani. I think he is right.

IT management and IT management tools vendors need to focus on optimizing that value-to-cost ratio, helping to ensure that business benefits are realized at the lowest overall cost. As Garbani says, IT management vendors need to position their tools “in the global context of the ‘IT Enterprise’ and show how they will contribute to internal IT optimization.”

What are your thoughts? Click the comments link below.