Capability breeds dependence. The more you can do, the more is asked of you. The more time you save, the more time you spend seeking out ways to save more time or money. If less really is more, how do you do more with less? Effective system monitoring could help you break free of the system shackles and use your System i (iSeries) network to save time and money.
System Monitoring
System Monitoring - Seeing is Believing for
IBM System i ManagersSystem Monitoring - Think Inside the Box
Capability breeds dependence. The more you can do, the more is asked of you. Themore time you save, the more time you spend seeking out ways to save more time ormoney. Improved performance leads to higher expectations. If less really is more, howdo you do more with less? Such are the challenges faced by many an IT Manager. Ifthe odds are stacked against you despite your best efforts, perhaps it's time to redressthe balance. Effective system monitoring could help you break free of the systemshackles and use your System i (iSeries) network to save time and money.just likemagic.
Money Trees and Time Machines - Myth Busting
'A powerful, robust network of servers - imagine all we could achieve with that. Thinkof the money we'll save; think of the time we'll save, think of that time as money andjust imagine the savings.' The technologies that support businesses that dare todream big are built on concepts such as this. The leap to seeing your servers as moneytrees and time machines isn't so large. This is the company's tool for modern dayalchemy, isn't it?
The problem is not the server's ability to reach optimal performance so you can reapthe rewards of increased productivity - it's making sure it maintains optimalperformance on a 24/7 basis. Add to this the typical problems of a reduction in staff tomanage the network and a growing user base that is calling in problems faster thanyou can identify or resolve them. It could feel as though the very technology that wasdesigned to increase your business productivity takes more people (money) and time(money) to manage. How much is the added productivity really costing you and isincreasing the size of your network only multiplying your existing, recurring andunresolved problems?
1 Requirement 2 Investmentfor increased or upgrade inproductivity server power
4 Users' 3 Replication oractivities multiplication ofhindered and problems toproductivity resolvefalls
Calculating the Cost
An underperforming system or network is a wasteful extravagance. Most businessessimply can't afford to profitably operate at less than optimal levels. Problems occurringin the following areas typically take the most time and resource to investigate andresolve or, left unattended, are most likely to lead to extremely serious and costlyproblems such as a lack of availability on the system.
2? Job Performance? System Performance? Memory Pool Performance? System Configuration
Case Study
Analysis of problems encountered in the network environment over a three monthperiod at Company X, a large food manufacturer, shows the extent that theirunderperforming network is costing them. The environment supports 7,000 users withannual revenues of $1.4billion. The cost associated with each of these problems is onlyrepresentative of the time it takes to investigate and resolve the problem, not theadditional expenses of further impact such as a loss of availability or additional diskpurchase etc.
Area Problem Reason Consequence CostTime consumingA looping job is 1There is no obvious investigation $1,760Job consuming vastreason as to why and/or additionalamounts ofPerformance disk space is being disk is required to Annual Est:temporaryrapidly consumed avert system $7,040 ++storage crash 2CPU usage is Several Time consuming, $1,210System consistently high QZDASOINIT jobs all have samethroughout the day take more CPU name, which ones Annual Est:Performance than they should are causing $4,840 ++problemCertain jobs There is a high Time consuming,experience poor rate of faulting which memoryperformance in a specific pool pool are jobs 3$79,965Memory Pool indicating too running in, thenmany jobs in the how many jobsPerformance Annual Est:pool or are in pool etc. $319,860++insufficientmemory in thepool 4Users complain of 1 IOP is being Time consuming $1,440System poor response times utilized more investigationConfiguration than the others Annual Est:$5,760++
Key:1 Two 4hr incidences of wasted profitability hrs for 2 people and 2 idle workers' time2 One 6hr incidence affecting a group of 10 users running at ½ productivity capacity3 Three 3hr incidences affecting a group of 130 users running at ¼ productivity capacity4 Two operators at weekend rates to investigate problem - still no conclusion after 2 days
