Enterprise IT Dashboards:
IT management is faced with the daunting task of quickly turning complex data into accurate, actionable information, which in turn generates informed decisions that support the organization’s overall business strategy. At the same time, IT management is responsible for ensuring high availability and performance of mission-critical applications, while continually working to communicate the value of the IT department to the organization Enterprise IT dashboards are integrated views that collect and communicate key data in a simple-to-understand way. They measure and manage IT services and performance to help executives and managers make informed decisions that support the strategic objectives of their organizations. A solid IT dashboard will effectively handle all the day-to-day needs for availability and performance, yet still provide the high level views and reporting needed in today’s leading organizations.
The Real World Challenges
Each day, IT managers are faced with the formidable task of effectively managing and optimizing a diverse and complex IT infrastructure environment. They are under great pressure to deliver high-performance and high-availability business-critical applications from e-mail, to Web, to on-demand applications – all essential to business competence.
The challenge is further exacerbated by systems performance data that is becoming increasingly unmanageable. As the number of an organization’s servers and applications grow, IT managers must find a way to convert metrics on server performance and IT service (application) availability into effective business intelligence that drives good IT decisions and accountability. The reality is that IT services are becoming more closely linked to overall business objectives. High performance and 24/7 availability are essential to delivering on and supporting business goals.
Transparent and easy-to-understand reporting is needed to provide clear results to the business units to back up the IT departments’ hard work. Without consistent and clear reporting that links to business metrics, even high-performing IT departments have trouble showing their contributions to the business. What IT managers need is a current, accurate, and well-organized snapshot view of systems performance, availability, and capacity data that gives them the clarity and insight to make the best possible business decisions quickly and effectively. Static data is no longer an option in technology today. At the highest level, IT executives and managers face the challenge of finding a better way to sync decision making with the objectives of the business units. IT Dashboards provide the key. This alignment of visibility and accountability between the business and IT has been labeled "The Discomfort Zone” by Gartner. Gartner continues to drive home IT and business integration by saying, "in an era of hyper-connected businesses, few enterprises will meet their strategic objectives without integrating business and IT strategic decision making."
The IT Dashboard Aligns the Organization
One solution with great potential for meeting these challenges is the enterprise IT dashboard. Over the last several years, the dashboard has evolved as a replacement for traditional, static, pre-formatted reports. The key to their value as business tools lies in the real-time, web-based, actionable metrics that display in an intuitive, interactive, user-friendly GUI format. Measuring and monitoring such factors as IT service health and application availability, server performance, and resource capacity, IT dashboards need to offer multiple hierarchical views, from performance and availability “snapshots,” to detailed, drill-down metrics.
IT dashboards also need to provide alerts into performance and availability issues that enable quick response and resolution. In a single glance, an IT manager needs to gain key information about what is really going on across the enterprise (including various platforms such as Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris, HP/UX, Novell, VMware, etc.), and to react immediately and decisively. The results are informed decisions that not only improve IT processes, but impact the organization as a whole. The net result is fast problem resolution and happy end users. According to Gartner, providing the right information to the right people at the right time is essential. Part of the right information includes identifying the objectives and metrics through Gartner’s simple methodology for action by making each metric "SMART:" Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Relevant, and Timely.
