Archived Newsletters

	May
		Expand Virtual Machines Carefully
		In terms of advantages, virtualization has brought higher utilization, server consolidation, workload flexibility, less downtime and reduced time to provision. But, is virtualization the warm and fuzzy end-all? Let’s pull back the covers and take a closer look. Read more.
		TeamQuest Technology Summit Promotes the Habits of World Class IT
		Practicing the habits of world-class IT is more than just a glitzy marketing phrase. It encompassed the more than 25 presentations and attendees at this year’s TeamQuest Technology Summit in Tucson, Arizona. Topics ran the capacity management gamut, delving into virtualization, modeling and aligning IT with business priorities. Read more for samples of what happened this year.

	April
		Role of Capacity Planning During a Recession
		The best capacity planning tools help you optimize the planning and delivery of IT services. Instead of throwing more capacity at a problem or enabling current resources to sit idle, IT organizations should ensure they can efficiently meet services levels now and for the future. Read more.
		Tips to Better Manage Virtual Servers
		Capacity Management plays a direct role in improving service to the customer. It now impacts pre-deployment testing, measuring and reporting during deployment, and the comparison of design predictions to discover if the organization achieved what it set out to do. Click to find out more.

	March
		Finding the "Right" Capacity
		The best capacity planning tools help you optimize the planning and delivery of IT services. Instead of throwing more capacity at a problem or enabling current resources to sit idle, IT organizations should ensure they can efficiently meet services levels now and for the future. Read more.
		ITIL V3 and the Capacity Planner
		Capacity Management plays a direct role in improving service to the customer. It now impacts pre-deployment testing, measuring and reporting during deployment, and the comparison of design predictions to discover if the organization achieved what it set out to do. Read more.

	February
		Measure, Monitor and Manage "Green" Initiatives
		Plan and employ infrastructure changes to meet growing business demands with TeamQuest software. Proactively monitor power consumption and heat output in the data center and make adjustments in real time to maintain adherence to efficiency standards. Read more.
		TeamQuest Outlines Software Roadmap
		TeamQuest Corporation is beefing up its release strategy and sharing a glimpse into future software releases with its latest software roadmap. Find out what’s planned for future IT software optimization releases from TeamQuest. Read more. Read more…

	January
		Solving Business Problems with 10.1
		IT Service Analyzer and IT Service Reporter offer three new technologies to help companies better identify, access and solve business problems. Find out the three new technologies. Read more…
		Is Capacity Planning Dead?
		The onslaught of virtualization software has influenced many to believe it’s time to shelve capacity planning tools in favor of virtualization software. Companies shouldn’t listen to the propaganda and here's why.

	December
		ITIL v2 vs ITIL v3: To Shift or Not to Shift
		ITIL version 2 adoption rates were rising quickly, but just as quickly, a third version of ITIL came out earlier this year. Take a look at why an organization may and may not want to jump into ITIL version 3.
		Build ITIL Success with Capacity Management
		The Capacity Management discipline of ITIL wields great influence on the other disciplines such as Problem and Availability Management. TeamQuest has found that companies may start their ITIL endeavors with Capacity Management and use the realized savings to fund the remainder of the project.

	November
		How to Efficiently Analyze Virtual Environments
		Take a look at three types of server virtualization – VMware, Sun Solaris Zones and IBM Micro-Partitioning – and how to analyze them using IT Service Analyzer in the context of ITIL processes.
		Effectively Monitor SOA Service Performance
		When faced with problematic IT services or multi-tiered applications, analysts need to zero in on the component causing the problem – regardless of where it may reside within the enterprise. Analysts, using proper capacity management software, should be able to take data from thousands of servers, and slice and dice this information in order to trace issues to their underlying causes.

	October
		Achieve the Right Focus with Capacity and Performance Management
		Get a better grasp of complex IT environments. Modeling helps companies meet service levels, plan and budget upgrades and find underutilized resources.
		Increase Alignment and Decrease Complexity with Modeling
		Ensure everyone is on the same page by knowing your environment and the audience. Many projects are delayed due to each group working from its own agenda.

	September
		Five Steps to Managing IT Service Performance
		Determine the best balance of cost and performance in the IT infrastructure. Implementing a set of processes designed to help optimize services will go a long way toward returning measurable results and value to the business.
		Tame the Data Center Energy Beast
		By 2011, the EPA estimates server and data center energy consumption will double, costing about $7.4 billion annually. However, there is a potential to save up to $4 billion through more energy efficient equipment and operations, and best management practices.

	August
		Maximize the Benefits of Capacity Planning
		Capacity planning can keep the epicenter of your company’s nervous system healthy. We examine planning methods and note their potential pitfalls.
		Improve Disaster Recovery Preparedness with Capacity Planning Tools
		Proper planning for disaster recovery can mean the difference between the life and death of a business. It pays to be prepared.

	July
		Providing a Global Perspective in the Data Center
		Examine the various issues and concerns connected with managing a distributed environment and how one company successfully compared apples to oranges. Take a look at capacity reconciliation as it applies to aggregating CPU utilization rates in a heterogeneous environment. Read more…
		How to use TeamQuest Linear Trend Analysis to Enhance VMware Monitoring
		Review how one global technology leader used TeamQuest Performance Software to enhance its VMware monitoring. Readers will have a better understanding how TeamQuest software integrates with VMware in the server consolidation process and monitoring memory and CPU. Read more…

	June
		Five Core Trends for Capacity Planners
		Ron Potter, Jon Hill and Scott Adams took a look at the future of IT infrastructure and discussed 5 core trends that the TTS audience should keep an eye on. ITIL version 3, Web 2.0, Extreme Transaction Processing…Read more
		Packed House gets Inside Information at TTS
		TTS 2007 brought in attendees from all over the world to discuss how they’re using TeamQuest software and discover what’s coming down the TeamQuest pipeline. Senior Forrester analyst Evelyn Hubbert said that service delivery is the next battleground and urged attendees to… Read more

	March
		TeamQuest Performance Software Release 10
		See what TeamQuest has in store with its latest software release.
		Power Consumption is Out of Hand
		Power consumption in the data center is causing the industry to overheat. Find out what’s being done in the industry to cool things a bit.

	February
		Daylight Saving Time: The Clock is Ticking
		With Daylight Saving Time less than a month away, it’s important to take a look at what could be affected and what should be done to minimize the associated risks. Read more to understand how this could affect you and your customers.
		Major Data Center Issue: Server Consolidation
		Gartner, Inc. recently issued a report citing that nearly 70 percent of survey respondents are either looking into consolidation or have a consolidation project underway. Read more information about server consolidation and this survey.

	January
		Four Ways to Reach Capacity Planning Nirvana
		TeamQuest discusses four ways to optimize your capacity planning efforts.
		CIO Focus in 2007
		McKinsey, Forrester and Gartner weighed in the main concerns for CIOs for 2007. Take a look at how their agendas affect the data center.

	December
		Improving Value of Capacity Planning Efforts
		Uncover the hidden benefits of proper capacity planning by using some of the techniques listed in this article and understand why capacity planning isn't receiving the accolades it deserves.
		Errors of Overprovisioning
		The average utilization rates for IT organizations were 20 percent last year. Have your utilization rates improved? If not, how can you have a positive effect? Read this article for ideas.

	November
		Decrease IT Complexity
		While complexity cannot be eliminated entirely from an environment, IT leaders can manage the complexity through processes, technology and people. Check out other ways of decreasing IT complexity.
		Moving at the Speed of Business
		As consumers demand and receive more from companies, IT will continue to receive more pressure to deliver services so the company can create value for the customer. Read this story for some ideas and findings on coping with the increasing pace of business.

	October
		Five Steps to Successfully Optimize Services
		Complement ITIL efforts with this best practices, five step process that can reduce TCO, provide a greater return on IT investment and improve IT service delivery.
		Show Business Value of Capacity Planning
		A Gartner senior vice president recently said that $8 out of $10 spent on IT is "dead" money. Discover how you can bring more visibility to capacity planning and keep it from becoming a casualty in the budget process.

	September
		Believing the SOA Hype
		The hype surrounding SOA has reached a fever pitch. Find out what you need to know about implementing the architecture and some interesting research findings.
		Disaster Recovery 101
		One major disaster can disrupt business and a company's reputation. Building a disaster recovery plan is the first step in ensuring your availability efforts keep your business up and running.

	August
		Go the Extra M.I.L.E. to Forge Successful IT/Business Alignment
		Aligning IT with business strategy has been discussed for the past 20 years. Find out how going the extra mile could bring the two sides closer to success.
		Using Blades, Virtualization or Both
		Blades and virtualization bring interesting opportunities to data centers. As the two become more popular with IT and business leaders, discover some of the advantages to using each and how they complement each other.

	July
		Data Centers are the Hottest Thing in Town
		Everyone from Congress, the EPA and other interested parties is taking an interest in cooling off data center power consumption and reducing energy costs. Get solutions and background information to the temperature-increasing problem.
		Take a Bite out of ITIL with Capacity Management
		ITIL brings promises of improved productivity, quality and processes for IT operations. The "big" issue is where to begin - tackle all ITIL processes at once or take a staggered approach. Discover why Capacity Management is the best starting point. One reason is that organizations can find enough cost avoidance in savings to finance the entire ITIL project.

	June
		Defining Capacity Planning
		The overriding perception in the industry seems to be that performance management is capacity planning. Several companies claim to possess capacity planning tools when in actuality they are offering performance management tools. Read on to discover what you're doing and demystify the world of capacity planning.
		Save Money and Heartache with Pre-deployment Testing
		Introducing untested applications into your environment can prove disastrous, however several companies continue to deploy mission critical applications without testing. Understand some of the issues surrounding pre-deployment testing and how you can use it to ensure your applications work properly in the production environment.

	May
		Optimize Services through Processes
		Life would be nice if someone developed a process - supported by tools - that optimized the planning and delivery of IT services. The art of creating a process that helps you increase the business value of IT is just a click away.
		The Grid Computing Conundrum
		Successfully using grid computing for business purposes can help drive utilization in a positive direction. Major hardware vendors are using this as a means to help departments and business units save money, but you still have to understand your capacity requirements.

	April
		Creating Harmony Between Virtualization and Capacity Management Tools
		Over the past five years virtualization’s popularity has grown to the point where it will soon be the default method of running a server. Among virtualization’s advantages are…
		Preparing your IT Department for the Future
		Switching IT’s role from a direct infrastructure provider to a facilitator of business processes requires delivering repeatable and measurable processes which demonstrate the value of the services IT provides.

	March
		Delivering Quality Service Successfully
		Discover critical success factors and the supporting key elements for IT service delivery. Understand what the business wants from your IT organization and then ensure you deliver.
		The Power Behind Service Level Agreements
		Take a practical approach for establishing Service Level Agreements with business units and identifying the right balance of service and budget you need to provision it.
		Resolving Data Center Issues
		Utilize your existing IT infrastructure, reduce hardware/software expenditures, free up facility space and increase staff productivity by using these strategies to resolve data center issues.