IT Managers are not in the business of luck. They need to prepare for every disaster scenario, every contingency and ensure that even when every object, job and process is running 100% perfectly on the system, some other unforeseen network element doesn't swoop in and ruin all their efforts, just because it resides outside the parameters of the System i. After all, in a situation like this, people remember the one thing that went wrong – not the millions of things that went right – it's unfortunate, but that's life.
Network Monitoring
Environmental Hazards to Peak Performance:
Why Network Monitoring is So Important for
System i ManagersNetwork Monitoring - Blame the Environment
A professional athlete has many considerations in ensuring their personal best. Thefood they eat, the way they physically train and mentally prepare, as well as theirstrategy and technique, all play a factor in optimizing their best result. Imagine all thathad been attended to and when the athlete arrived for the race of their life, hisperformance was ruined as he was struck by lightning. Unlucky, some would say - or,it's unfortunate, but that's life. IT Managers are not in the business of luck. They needto prepare for every disaster scenario, every contingency and ensure that even whenevery object, job and process is running 100% perfectly on the system, some otherunforeseen network element doesn't swoop in and ruin all their efforts, just because itresides outside the parameters of the System i. After all, in a situation like this, peopleremember the one thing that went wrong - not the millions of things that went right -it's unfortunate, but that's life.
Not Your Fault.Just Your Problem
Whilst no one can be aware of every potential problem that may or may not impact thesystem, IT Managers can reduce the incidence and impact of any potential problem intwo ways. The first is to raise their awareness of the boundaries of their systemswithin the network and identify the areas of overlap where potential problems mayoccur. The second is to extend the proactive approach to systems management thatkeeps all their own elements running well, to these overlap areas, in an effort toprotect the system from unforeseen problems and deal with them promptly andeffectively when they do occur.
Frustrated users, who are delayed in their work, have no means of pinpointing theissue, so often any 'lag' to productivity is initially deemed an issue for Operators toresolve. In the case where these may actually be network issues, a bitter blame gamecan ensue with both Operations and Network teams pitted against one another as theyeach dig up 'proof' that the problem is not theirs. As this lengthy elimination process iscarried out, the users are still waiting and productivity and profitability still suffers. Asan Operator, it may not be your fault that the IOP's were incorrectly configured by anengineer, or that a user has sent a huge file that has had a knock-on effect on thenetwork traffic, or the TCP Ping has fallen over and severed data communicationsbetween users and the server. None of it may be your fault - but with immediatevisibility to these issues, solving these types of problems becomes a fast and pain freeexperience. SSyysstteemmss PPeerrffoorrmmaannccee
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2Calculating the Cost
Without sophisticated tracing tools to accurately pinpoint common 'network' issues thatcould be impacting users' productivity, it is very difficult to know where to start lookingin identifying potential causes. What's more, as these issues have the potential to beeither system or network related, quite often, members from both teams becomeinvolved in determining the root cause, effectively utilizing the time and resources oftwice as many people. The costs of this type of system/network detective work cansoon add up to significant sums. Frequently, issues such as this often fall into twomajor categories and should be primary considerations for anyone considering thistype of network monitoring:
? Network Bottlenecks and Errors? IOP Utilizaton
Case Study
Company x is a large retail operation that was struggling with network issues thatwere not immediately visible on their centrally managed System i network. Thenetwork supports 10,500 users nationwide and the company generates $2.1 billion inrevenues annually. The IT Manager and Network Manager often wrestled with thesame issues and decided to review the financial impact this had made in the past 12months. The cost -impact results of the review were far higher than they anticipated,primarily due to delays and the associated cost of the time spent to identify the issue.The team was also acutely aware of the (as yet) unquantifiable fiscal damage to thebrand reputation and loss of customer loyalty. The figures below only account for theimmediate impact.
Area Problem Consequence... [download for more]
